Training Log Archive: Bash

So... I just looked at the Coast to Coast results from 2009 and now I'm feeling queasy. 145 racers finished out of 189. Of the 145 that finished, only 16 were women. 16!!!! And every single one of them was younger than I am. Aacckk!!!! A finish time of 16-17 hours would be the target - if I'm able to finish at all. Looks like there's a cut-off before the 7-hr paddle. Note to self: must do more paddle training.

2nd Annual Bolton Fall 50 in honour of Coach LD's birthday. Goose designed a paddle/bike/run course that would take us approximately 50 km around Caledon. Guests were Phatty, Leanimal, Rocky, Chris, Mike, 'Bent and me. The only rule was "no racing, be social".

We put our boats into the Humber River at Duffy's Lane.



At 8 months pregnant, Leanimal had trouble doing up her PFD.



Paddling was good without too many shallow spots. Miraculously, I managed to keep my feet dry. There were some obstacles though.



The obstacles were a little harder for the pregnant members of our group.



Goose paddled a kayak and got a little wetter and chillier than the rest of us.



The feeling of wilderness was amazing so close to - and even within - the town of Bolton.







Mostly 'Bent paddled with me.



But he and Phatty decided to take a run at a good-sized beaver dam together. It was a nailbiter!





At TA1 (the Goose Nest), we picked up our bikes for the ride north to TA2 (Chez Bash 'n' 'Bent) via roads and trails.





We locked up the bikes at our place, leaving them in the care of our ferocious guard Lab ThunderDog, who had knocked some of the TA food off the counter while we were away. Then we took BulletDog and headed out onto the trails in the sunshine. Note the (substantial) side view of Leanimal.





Like yesterday, there was a hiking group. (Phatty was nursing a minor injury.)



And a running group.





We returned to our place to pick up our bikes for the ride back to Bolton and birthday dinner. We rode trails through Palgrave, then passed through a new subdivision, then took Mount Hope back to Bolton.









Finished and ready for a big, yummy potluck meal!



Garmin Totals 53.3 km, 407 m climb, 6:09:55

Hockley Loop trail run with a great group of friends. From left to right: Mrs. Gally, Hingo, Crash, Bash, Andrew, M&M, Tiny, Dee, Phatty, Patty and Logie.



And zooming into the parking lot just in the nick of time... FB!



There was also a hiking group who stayed out in the sunshine even longer than we did: Amber, Wanda, Funderstorm, 'Bent, BulletDog and Leanimal. Salomon has been very successful in the hiking demographic.



Fun run, excellent weather, great company, a little snow on the ground and a terrific lunch at the Black Birch with some of the folks afterward. Not often we get 17 people and a dog out for training... must do this more often!

(GPS info assembled from two different tracks because I messed up! Time deducted for major stops.)

Did the 100 Pushups Training Test

Managed 16 full pushups - although admittedly, the last one wasn't pretty. That makes me "Average" which was a happy surprise. I was expecting to be "Weak" and had serious worries about falling into the "No Power" category. The bad news is that now I have to start on Week 3 of the Pushup program. Looks like I can procrastinate till Monday because that's how the program works. Phew.

While watching Daily Show/Colbert. It's a sad week for us Democrats (by which I mean most Canadians).

Leanimal is not your typical expectant Mom and she wouldn't want a typical baby shower, so Coach LD planned a surprise urban adventure race followed by delicious food and fun at Annette's place. Two teams - Braveheart & the Blondes (us) and Husky Plus (them) - competed. As with anything involving Phatty or Leanimal, it was essential that this shower have winners and losers. (BTW, Phatty ended up going away on business so he's the only *real* loser of the evening.)

We ran on trails, through parks, down suburban streets, into playgrounds and around schoolyards, reading the clue poems and carrying out our appointed tasks, which usually involved taking a photo or two to prove what we had done. As the evening progressed, we had to get a photo of a baby change table, find the aisle at Zehr's where Huggies are sold, ride in a shopping buggy, count the number of baby/child/parenting words on the clue sheet and write a new poem using those words. In spite of all that and a few other things that should have raised Lee's antennae, she didn't realize this was her own surprise party until we were making a team pyramid on Annette's front lawn. At that point, Annette, Rita and Stephanie came out to yell "Surprise!"

Even though our team was clearly superior, the shower was, unfortunately, ruled a draw. The other team wrote the better poem using baby/parenting themed words - although it is surprising that a great poet like Kevin would try to claim that "porn" is the only word that rhymes with "born". Oh, and that line - "Now Pete will have to fix his thing" - might be premature. But I digress... Our team had the best - in fact, the *only* - printed photo of the evening from Zehr's, as required to obtain bonus points. Those photo machines were just too complex for the other team. ;-) Tough call for the judges and I have to respect their decision.

Another fun evening with this crazy but wonderful group of outdoor-loving friends we're so lucky to have in our community. And big congratulations to Phatty and Leanimal!

Note the pregnant woman on top of the human pyramid. You don't see that every day! Not to mention the guy at the bottom of the pyramid who just had knee surgery.

Hockley Loop trail run this Saturday - friendly people are welcome and we'll undoubtedly split up into groups of different paces. (Alas, my pace is *particularly* different.) On the list so far: Dee, Logie, Tiny, M&M, FB, Mrs. Gally and me.

Leaving at 9 a.m. from the Bruce Trail parking lot - marked as the start/finish point on this GPS track of the Hockley Loop.
http://www.attackpoint.org/sessiondata.jsp?session...

Cruisy road ride from Hockley Village out into Adjala and New Tecumseth. Reminder to self: thinking about road riding on a cold day (5C) was much worse than doing it. Kudos to Salomon - my new windproof tights seemed like they might be too thin as a single layer but they kept my legs toasty.

Next time I should either ride a loop that I've driven before or else do an out and back. I started out by making random turns on nice, quiet-looking paved roads until I discovered - to my surprise - that I was in Alliston. After that, I was stuck on not-very-pleasant roads as I extracted myself and returned to Hockley. The problem is that I don't know which roads are paved until I get there and Princess isn't much fun on gravel.

I made a few stops to adjust my seat and seat post. Princess may be pretty but she sure isn't comfortable to ride compared to a mountain bike. After making a few adjustments, today was the first ride after which I didn't feel like someone had attacked sensitive body parts with a carving knife. I still got pain in my right lower back though - maybe I should get a professional bike fitting to see if that will go away. Core strength training will be important too.

Two weeks from Saturday, I'm doing a charity ride where I can choose between 60 km, 100 km or 100 miles. I need to start building up time so I don't wreck myself. Today was a milestone: I have finally ridden Princess farther than I will be riding in Coast to Coast (155 km). Baby steps...

End-of-month report card on 2010 training resolutions:

The GOOD:
1) 450 hrs total annual training - I'm at 508 hrs so far this year, yay! With two months left in 2010, I'm already ahead of my total hours for 2007, 2008 and 2009.
2) Lose 10 lb from Jan. 1 weight - Holding steady at minus 16 lb.
7) Did a mountain marathon, two rogaines and a 50K trail race.

The BAD:
4) Do speed and hill intervals regularly - Some of my workouts end up being interval-like but I've stopped doing structured intervals since Crash started working early mornings. Apparently I need peer pressure.
5) One training session per week before breakfast - Ditto. I'd started doing this but now I'm not. As above, I blame Crash. ;-)

The UGLY
3) Strength training - min. 1 hr/week. Sounds ridiculously easy but I've averaged less than 30 min/week this year - same as every frickin' year.
6) In bed by midnight at least 4 days/week - Nope.

This winter is going to be weird for training with the Coast to Coast paddle/bike/run race to prepare for in mid-Feb. I've just finished a high-volume week and I'm planning a warm weather one in late November. Paddle training is complicated since I don't want to paddle alone in cold water and we don't currently have a lightweight kayak that I can lift onto the car anyway. There's still time for more road biking but I'm the queen of excuses when there's windchill on the pavement. In truth, I can always find an excuse to avoid road biking. At least it will be easy to do trail running through the winter. Too bad that's only 33 km of the 243-km race!