Training Log Archive: Bash

Morning after the night before. 'Bent was out the door at 7 a.m. sharp to fetch coffee to our cabin; he reminded me that it had been my brilliant idea to go for an early ride on the Torrance Barrens before the wedding farewell brunch. Sigh, he was right - and once I woke up for real (an hour or two later, while on the bike), I was glad we'd gone. It was a fun, easy-paced, rocky, technical ride. When we went east, the glare from the low morning sun made it tough to see what was ahead so we had to be cautious. If we started to go quickly, it went like this: "Pedal, pedal, pedal, EEEEK! Surprise 1 meter drop-off!!"

Somehow I agreed to (a) get up early on the morning of Andrew and Kim's wedding to go running on rolling gravel roads near Camp Pine Crest, and (b) go with Rita (bridesmaid) and Leanne, both of whom run faster than my comfort zone. So it became an unplanned tempo run. Rita had to turn around early to work on flowers. Beautiful morning!

Morning yoga on the dock with the bride and groom. A lot of us were excited about this but no one as much as Leanne.



James was a voyeur.



You've heard of Hot Yoga? Well, this was Cold Yoga - single digit Celsius when we started gathering on the dock. But we warmed up as we got moving, and it was an amazing way to start a special day.







Just when we were supposed to get meditative and relaxed, and clear our minds of all thoughts other than our breathing and a mantra, I suddenly remembered that I'd forgotten the power cord for my laptop at home, and I needed to do a Powerpoint presentation that afternoon. So instead of focusing on my breath moving through my body, I was frantically working through different options in case my battery was low. This is the sort of thing my brain *always* does to me during yoga "relaxation"... sigh!

Quick lap before lunch, just to say we did!

Pre-wedding BBQ, chatting and various activities around Camp Pine Crest. Weather was spectacular and cloud formations were very cool.







Three lovely ladies - Mari and her grandmas.



Groom and Best Man making final decisions on wedding plans using Rock, Paper, Scissors.



Pretending that I'm Luis Moreira.



Showing off my Bruce Peninsula Multisport Race Buff.



Traditional pre-wedding high ropes course.



Andrew getting ready to take the plunge.

The adventure racing crowd, all cleaned up.

Rene and Susannah - first night away from their 9-month-old, and they also have a 3-year-old. Twenty-four hours of freedom and meals eaten while still hot - woo hoo! It felt too strange so they eventually borrowed Sara from Harper and Amy.



Iris



Marta



Not a Salomon logo to be seen on Pete and Leanne.



James and Brit.



Harper looks like he's modeling for a men's wear catalogue with his Forbes tartan tie and his lovely wife and baby, Amy and Sara, by his side.



I was sporting a huge bruise on the back of my arm from Logs Rocks and Steel. At least it matched my dress.

Wedding ceremony on a rocky hill by the lake.


Of course we were piped in.



The traditional arrival of the Groom by mountain bike - including one bunny hop on the way downhill.





We didn't know what he'd worn under the kilt so it's just as well he got off on our side. We hoped for his sake that it came with a chamois. It was Pete's bike so we were pretty sure he wasn't "dressed" in the usual manner!



Groom and Best Man await the arrival of the Bride.



Lacking a bike, Kim was forced to walk.





A very happy couple.





No explanation needed.





Mr. and Mrs.





Leaving the ceremony. Yes, Kim the former camp director is the stern paddler in this marriage. But neither of them was wearing the pants in the family.









Is this a happily married man or *what*?



The Bride had the best footwear for the Ceilidh. No blisters, no getting her toes stepped on. Perfect!



Wishing all the best to Andrew and Kim. What a wonderful wedding weekend that reflected both your personalities, your love for each other and for your families and friends, and your passion for nature!

Dancing at a Scottish/Irish Ceilidh was a *serious* aerobic workout. It was also loads of fun except when 'Bent punched me in the eye while trying to correct one of our many dance step errors. An accident, I think. On a similar note, I nearly took out Leanimal a couple of times early on.

'Bent and I did a short ride on the Torrance Barrens before the pre-wedding fun. Ran into Harps and rode together for 10 minutes till my chain broke. Finally convinced him to carry on after I dropped half of 'Bent's only quicklink deep into the moss, making for a longer repair. Fun ride and looking forward to an awesome weekend! Met one of 2-Min's marathoner friends tonight and somehow ended up booked for a run at 7:45. 'Bent fell in with a bad crowd at the party and now *he's* got an even earlier run arranged for 7:30 with Harps and Phatty. Sucker!

If I'm going to achieve any of my crazy running goals, I need to become the kind of person who regularly whips off a hilly trail half-marathon+ before dinner without thinking of it as a long run. This was a start; I'm not that person yet!

Home to Glen Haffy via Bruce Trail side trail, loop south of stile, loop north of Coolihan's. Must return to do repeats of the 1.9 km steep hilly loop south of the stile. Only glimpsed one ribbon for this weekend's orienteering meet (which I'm not doing!)

Article on the 330K Tor des Geants trail running race in Italy including a good interview with Zoolander discussing the race, his strategy and his difficult decision to withdraw after "only" 172K with an ankle injury.

A quote from one runner, "If the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc [my 2013 goal] is the Tour de France of trail running, this is the Giro d'Italia." Zoolander is quoted as saying he didn't have enough fingers to count the number of white-haired guys who passed him on the first climb. "It was out of control!" :) This race has 24,000 m of elevation gain. Yup, 24,000 m. Holy crap.

We lost Tobler two months ago today and it gets easier, of course, but I still wept like a baby reading today's Facts and Arguments column.

Here she is winning a prize (a lot of dog food!) in the Dog Contest at the Schomberg Fair back in her early years. She had to do a trick, get her tail measured, eat food really fast and a lot of other silly stuff. A friend e-mailed this photo to us recently - I'd forgotten it existed.



One month ago today, we brought Brody (BazingaDog) home from a rescue organization. He's gained 10 lb in that time so we need to keep being nice to him - but that's no problem because we've already fallen in love. Even BulletDog, who wasn't sure at first. :) And so, life goes on...

Yes, I went road biking when I didn't have to, and no, I don't understand it either. It seemed appropriate on the 1-year anniversary of unexpectedly winning the Coast to Coast race entry that forced me to buy Princess against my will. She deserves some fresh air from time to time and OK, I'll admit it - I even enjoyed it a little.

This was an exploratory ride. I parked in Caledon East and rode to The Grange Sideroad, which I followed west to Hwy 10. Lots of fun rolling hills and very little traffic. I didn't feel like crossing 5 lanes moving at 110 kph so I backtracked to the first paved road (Heart Lake Rd.) to head north. The best roads to ride in Caledon are the east-west ones since people who are in a hurry tend to be traveling north-south. However, this means that paved east-west roads are less common. So I kept riding north to Beechgrove Rd. without finding a suitable place to turn off. I finally gave up and took a bone-rattling ride on loose gravel for 1.5 km east to get to Horseshoe Hill Rd. where I could return south to The Grange.



This is the area where the Oak Ridges Moraine meets the Niagara Escarpment so I was always climbing or descending with a stiff wind coming from the north. Maximum speed: 63 kph, Minimum speed: really, really slow. So much for the "easy ride" I'd planned! Near the north end, I was in the highest part of Caledon with an incredible view down to the CN Tower and Lake Ontario in the distance. But the highlight was lunch and iced latte at the Caledon Hills Coffee Company where Crash is the chef-in-residence - the best reason to scout rides that start/finish in Caledon East.

Great article on the way scientific advances are treated in the popular media. You sure don't want to be a shifty climate scientist like Hammer, who posted this.

For those considering joining Funderstorm and me at the North Face Endurance Challenge Championship trail running event in San Francisco on Dec. 3, it appears that the 50K and 50 Mile distances are nearing capacity.

Less than 12 weeks till a mountain 50-miler so my LR&S recovery run was a hills workout. I ran through Palgrave West to the less steep side of KBash Lookout, then did a loop up the hill, down the steep side (to practise battering my poor joints), then up Charlevoix hill and down its steeper side to get back to the start - a 900 m loop X 5.

There was a rest in the middle when I stopped to chat with a hiker - a rare phenomenon in KBash Woods. He was a very pleasant gentleman, by which I mean he said how nice it was to see "a young girl out running". haha!! He was carrying a bouquet of wildflowers he'd picked for his wife - aww...

I've been reading about the central governor theory lately (again). It's not new but it's relevant since I think my central governor is rather conservative and bossy. I'm interested in how some scientists think the CG may relate to interval training. I felt that I approached hills differently at LR&S after practising attacking hills on my Hockley mini-loop earlier in the week. My fitness cannot have changed in that length of time so it must be largely in the mind. Cool!

Can't believe how much I feel like a (geeky) kid in a candy store at the start of a 12-week training period working toward a well-defined goal - a tough one that I honestly don't know will be possible, which makes it way more interesting than the other kind. I've got the Toad 50K on Oct. 1, and I want to keep nav events in the picture and possibly even some multi-sport. I'm looking at the U.S. Rogaining Champs and Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Raid The Hammer as two nav/running events that could fit with the program. Looking forward to getting faster, stronger and, oh yeah, thinner - I want to drop 3-5 lb before this thing.

I fell on a (pointy) Log beside a Rock on Saturday. Thank God there was no Steel.

Sea kayakers with intermediate+ skills... If you want to extend your season in a beautiful part of Ontario, check out the Georgian Bay Storm Gathering north of Parry Sound on the Oct. 15 weekend. It's a 3-day event but last year 'Bent and I arrived on the Fri. night and just did the Sat/Sun activities. About half the attendees are instructors and all of them are interesting. Skills clinics, rolling practice, dock launches, SUP intro, rescue training, stroke improvement, scenic paddling, wave surfing, evening slide shows, hot tubbing, story swapping or just hang out with a good book. No need to do anything you don't feel comfortable with and you're always welcome to head out for a paddle instead of joining a structured session. Stay in shared cabins or camp onsite. BYO food except for Saturday night restaurant group dinner. If you're thinking of going, let me know!

Rocky, Crash and I took our respective pooches for a hike in Palgrave West in sunny weather and - at the farthest point on our loop - got hit by one of the heaviest rainstorms I've ever been out in around here. It was much like racing in Hurricane Irene, except without the rain gear. We got soaked to the skin, including my iPhone, which miraculously survived. Rocky had left her sunroof and car windows open in our driveway so we were cringing at what we would find, but otherwise we were just laughing about it. Crash spun off toward home when we got close, and Rocky and I did some unscheduled running with Sir Jazz and BazingaDog. (I normally wouldn't log this but our "drowned rat" pic is kinda funny.)