Training Log Archive: Bash

Ya gotta love a guy who does his first marathon at 89. If you ever think it's too late to achieve an athletic goal - or any other kind of goal - remember 100-year-old Fauja Singh who in today's Toronto Waterfront Marathon became the oldest person to ever finish a marathon in a time of 8:25. He holds a bunch of other records too, all of them achieved over the age of 80.

My 50-miler training program calls for a couple of longer-than-usual long runs in addition to a 50K "race" at training pace (Run for the Toad). Goose kindly offered to join me for today's long, sloooow run. Good company made 5 hours on the trail much more pleasant.



It was a perfect day for running - cool, mostly cloudy with a few sunny breaks. Light rain began to fall in the final kilometers. We started at 5th Sideroad east of Airport Road and ran about 6K on the Bruce Trail to the Hockley Loop. After completing the Loop, we ran back along the same route. (Sort of - we messed up a trail detour in one direction.) It's a very hilly route, mostly on trail with a few short dirt road sections. I aimed to run it at a slow 50-miler pace, walking on the uphills and taking it easy on the body on the downhills. It was still faster than the 50-miler should be but there will be bigger hills and my legs will get sore.

I turned my ankle *hard* after 10 minutes - argghh. As always seems to be the case, my ankle was just fine when doing tougher stuff - testing the Wilderness Traverse course off-trail earlier this week. But when I was running on a nice, leafy trail... CRUNCH. Not sure why but this one scored 11/10 on the pain-o-meter and it didn't settle down until I took an ibuprofen a few hours later. (Not sure... maybe it would have been better to do this sooner but I didn't want to mask the injury.) Goose and I pulled out the magic Leukotape immediately to strap my stoopid ankle. I felt like I had a limp for the next couple of hours and I was very cautious but at least it was possible to keep going.

It was my second time running with poles - not necessary for this route but potentially useful for mountain races. I'm still trying to work out how best to use them. So far I use them the same way I use them for trekking - hauling myself up hills and offloading weight to make downhills safer and less jarring. I've been wasting the poles on flats and gentle slopes but Goose was diligently using them for forward propulsion like the good XC ski coach he is. He gave me some great ideas that I'll keep working on. Because my ankle hurt so badly today, I used the poles almost as crutches sometimes on technical terrain so it wasn't the best day to work on technique.

We met a few interesting people along the way - a group of ultrarunners including Stephen Bradshaw, a friend of Slowrunner. It was funny because we'd both commented on a photo of hers on Facebook yesterday and had learned that we would both be running in Hockley Valley today. Although we'd never met before, he and I immediately checked each other's identity as soon as we met them! There aren't a lot of runners on the trail.

At a lookout, we met a family and the man said, "Hi Barb". Turns out it was a teacher who remembered me from volunteering as sweep at a school XC running meet last year. He knows Goose's wife, Coach LD.

Last but definitely not least, we met a man working hard on the Bruce Trail northeast of 5th Sideroad and Airport Rd. We made a point of thanking him for his work and he described the sections of trail he is responsible for. In reference to one section, I said, "Oh, that's a beautiful new section with Dave's Pinnacle and Sally's Pinnacle." He smiled and said, "I'm Dave. And my wife is Sally." And then I knew who he was since I had read about them in a Bruce Trail Club newsletter. He and his wife generously donated land to the Bruce Trail organization and allow the trail to run through their land just north of where we met him. No wonder there are so many interesting side trails in that area!

Dave commented that there are 400,000 Bruce Trail uses each year but only 8,000 paid memberships. I notice that Keen Canada is subsidizing 50% of new (not renewed) Bruce Trail memberships until Oct. 31, so if you are a trail user, consider signing up soon for a 1-year membership for just $25 .

We were the very first people to run through a brand new section of trail that Dave had just re-routed. Nice! Also nice was a latte and chocolate chip shortbread cookie from the Hockley General Store afterward. :)

Easy treadmill run instead of braving the 80 kph winds in the forest. Just making sure the legs still work after Thursday's trek. Tomorrow is a loooooong run.

Bob and I have barely finished our follow-up for Wilderness Traverse 2011 and it's already time to start planning WT 2012! We're moving to Muskoka next year, probably finishing in Bala. The date should be announced shortly, likely mid-to-late August.

A couple of weeks ago, we got together with our laptops and collections of Ontario maps and books. It takes awhile to sketch out (and agree on) an interesting 24-hour race course on paper but that is just the beginning. Next we have to visit and travel through the terrain, determine whether mapped trails and roads really exist (and whether there are more), look for potential safety issues, and choose fair CP locations based on the map and terrain and our desire to provide route choice. There are also practical details, including researching land ownership and obtaining permissions. This can involve time-consuming processes such as going through municipal bureaucracy. We have to look for transition areas with sufficient space for our needs and ensure that the race finishes near a venue that can hold about 50 teams. It's a huge, intricate, real world puzzle. I've learned a lot working with Bob over the past couple of years.



Although we can do some course scouting and testing in winter, most of the meaningful field work needs to happen when there is no snow on the ground. Since Bob is heading to Tasmania for the Adventure Racing World Champs next week, we had to make a trip before mid-October. Autumn course testing can be a little chilly but it is an incredible time to be up north.



You can see the full set of photos on Facebook. If you're on Facebook, please "like" the Wilderness Traverse page to receive occasional updates.

If you're not on Facebook, you can see the pics at this public link.

Today Bob and I checked out a portion of one of the trekking sections. Fantastic terrain!



Wide open forest with mossy rocks and rolling hills.



Long, rocky ridges.





Bodies of water. Lots of them.







All the water made things interesting on this October day. It was cold enough that we didn't want to spend too long immersed so we'd brought a pack raft. For our biggest crossing, we crammed ourselves into it and took turns using the ridiculous mini-paddle that comes with the raft. It ended up being a reasonably efficient way to travel, even including the time for inflation and deflation of the raft. Also, it made us laugh because - let's face it - pack rafting is inherently silly. If we stick with this version of the race course, some teams may find pack rafts useful.





For shorter crossings, we waded and swam. Brrr.





Bob is lucky that he doesn't have to worry about getting cold from having wet hair.



It was hunting season for both bear (gun) and deer (bow). We dressed brightly and luckily didn't run into anyone. In theory, we're supposed to wear blaze orange but when so many leaves are orange, I'm not sure if that's really the best plan. Last fall we were course testing in moose season and ran into several hunters.



At one point we had to cross a wetland, teetering and jumping between little pieces of sphagnum moss that started to sink as soon as we put our weight on them. I focused my camera on Bob every time he took a step but alas, he did not oblige me (or my blog readers) by falling in.



Bob passed the map over at half-time so we each had a chance to navigate in this interesting terrain.



Unfortunately, we got started late due to some administrative chores we had to do in the area, so we turned back before reaching our goal. That's OK - it just means we have more exploring to do another time. What an awesome way to spend an October day!

My share of the pack raft paddling when Bob got himself all worn out.

Wilderness Traverse course scouting with Bob.

Ontario is one of the best places in the world for canoe tripping, so if we could imagine an ideal WT paddle section, we would want racers to feel like they're on a wilderness canoe route. For this scouting expedition, we looked at a map and linked together some lakes and sections of rivers, hoping we would find portage trails in places where we needed to make connections. The map showed a few rapids and I'd wondered whether I should bring my bike helmet, but the water was low enough at this time of year that our only worry was whether we could get through a few places where beavers had been very busy.





We didn't always find trails in places where we'd hoped portages would exist so we bushwhacked instead. I carried the canoe pack and paddles, leaving Bob to lug the heavy whitewater canoe through the rocky forest. (Hey, you're training for the AR World Champs! I'm doing you a favour, dude.)







Hmm, where does the canoe go next?



I suspected that Bob wasn't paddling in the back so I took this photo to prove it.



When we're course testing, these strange trees sometimes appear along the shoreline. ;)



The paddle was awesome, varied, beautiful and wild - the highlight of this week's scouting trip, although the trek came a very close second. We didn't see anyone although I was really hoping for a moose. The weather was cool and eventually turned rainy but it was still a fantastic day for paddling.

Next on the agenda was a bike ride, some of it on snowmobile trails we're hoping to use on the race course. I guess Bob must not be very experienced at this stuff because he brought two left gloves. ;)



Unlike ATV trails, snowmobile trails have an added element of surprise since the neat dashed line on the map may cross a pond or bog in the real world. We can zoom in on Google Earth to get an idea of whether a trail is passable but the only way to know for sure is to start riding and see how deep the water gets.



We usually do our initial course scouting in daylight since we want to see the terrain and any potential issues (private property signs, safety concerns, new roads, etc.) Today we started riding about 90 minutes before darkness fell and it was a little darker than usual due to the rain, which got heavier as we went.



We emerged onto a road at dusk and the plan was to continue for another couple of hours on unfamiliar snowmobile trails in the dark. At this point, Bob mentioned the option of 20K on roads back to the car and I'm embarrassed to admit that I folded like a cheap tent. Not only would the snowmobile trail be a trip into unknown, squishy territory on a wet night, it would likely mean that we'd finish after all the local restaurants had closed, so we'd end up scarfing raspberry gels and eLoad instead of a hot dinner. Because I'd been sick and without appetite until yesterday at noon, I was worried that I wouldn't have any extra energy if something went wrong on the trail.

Even on roads, the ride back in lashing rain was an adventure. On paved sections, the shoulder kept shrinking and expanding randomly, our bikes started to hydroplane in puddles, and cars would rush by, surprised to see two cyclists out after dark in nasty weather. Later, when we were sitting in a nice, warm restaurant in dry clothes, Bob confessed he was glad to be sipping hot chocolate instead of riding. We'll check out that snowmobile trail another day.

Packing for two days of Wilderness Traverse course testing. Not fully recovered yet but I'd better be ready to go by 7 a.m. tomorrow. Getawaystix has planned a busy couple of days for us!

Beautiful day and I spent it feeling lightheaded and unable to stomach much food. (Naturally, I didn't lose an ounce - sigh.) I lay on our back lawn for awhile just so I didn't miss the gorgeous weather entirely. No wonder I felt so awful at the start of yesterday's run. Hope it's a 24-hour bug. :(