Training Log Archive: Bash

Festival Fall Fifty multi-discipline Tour de Caledon in honour of Coach LD's birthday. Time has been deducted for group photos, feats of strength and cookie breaks. I've included extra pics for Phatty and Leanimal who were with us in spirit. Some are mine and some were taken by Mr. Biker - thank you!

Not everyone could make it for the Full 50 but the hard core partiers included:

Goose and Coach LD



Hansel and Gretel



Mr. and Mrs. Biker



'Bent and me.



It was below freezing when we got up so the initial paddling leg was a terrific test of our cold weather paddling gear. Yay, fuzzy rubber! I almost got it right but my fingertips were still cold. We started at the Goose Nest and drove our canoes up to the Duffy's Lane Bridge.



Hansel broke out the Pringles at 9:30 a.m. before we'd burned a single calorie.



'Bent and Hansel were our GoPro guys. A video will follow when the editor has had time to reduce it from a few hours to a few minutes.



We paddled about 8 km on the Humber River back to the Goose Nest. Thanks to Hurricane Sandy, there was plenty of water for a November paddle. Goose said the water had been almost a meter higher early in the week. This is a technical little paddle - not because the rapids or current are challenging but because you're almost always steering to avoid rocks, fallen trees and branches at face height.









The number of portages on this stretch of river changes over time. Today there was only one.





Now that the leaves are down, it's almost time to start thinking about skiing on the river!



Coach had packed along her famous LD cookies so we stopped for a snack break halfway down the river.



I can't explain it but the subject of wife carrying contests came up. And this being a physically active, competitive group of people consisting of four wives and their husbands, it was only a matter of time until a couple of couples had to try it. The thing is, they couldn't remember the technique and perhaps they were over-thinking it a little. Some of the attempts were unintentionally worthy of "Penthouse for Outdoorsmen" magazine.

Hansel and Gretel gave it a try - but they *are* newlyweds, after all.



Goose and Coach LD attempted a few different techniques, taking advantage of Coach's background in gymnastics.

Hansel and Gretel finally figured out a method that is actually *used* in wife carrying contests. This is the "Estonian" technique, according to Wikipedia.

The 2nd leg of our tour started with a hilly bike ride mostly on roads up to Palgrave Estates. Before we left, Coach LD got out the "big foot" candies for Phatty (in absentia).



Coach Huet and Hubby Huet joined us for the biking.











Then we went west on the rail trail to Albion Hills to ride a little trail.





I did not get the memo that we were supposed to walk down this hill.



Group shot at the Chalet.



Gretel is an experienced road rider but a relative newbie to single track. She seemed to enjoy herself!



She had borrowed my old bike and she returned it *dirty*. Tsk.



Then we hit the road back to Bolton (net downhill from the dizzying heights of Palgrave).

The final leg of our tour was a trek/run from the Goose Nest to the old Bolton Camp for some exploring, then west to the Humber Valley Trail until we reached our cars at the start of the canoe leg. Yay, Crash was able to join us for this one.





Throughout the day, we'd been finding mysterious little balls hanging along our route, marked by pink flagging tape. Coach LD had gone out and placed them the day before. Each one had a little phrase written on it with a blank that we needed to fill in with one of our nicknames. Here's Crash after she found a ball beside the trail. She is puzzling over the clue which included the phrase "______ Test Dummies". :) To be fair, this was the first ball she'd seen, and the rest of us had had a lot more practice by this point!



We found some bars in the middle of the abandoned camp. Obviously, some feats of strength were performed, first by Goose and Hansel.



Then Coach LD.



And 'Bent.



Goose also did well in the Chippendale Contest.



OK, that's really just an awkward photo of a jumping jack.

Our last big find was a thermos of squash soup with more cookies that Coach LD had stashed along the Humber Trail.



We finished the day with potluck dinner, birthday poetry and cake!

I woke up teetering on the edge of a cold, and with the all-important Festival Fall Fifty coming up tomorrow, I opted to sleep in, take ColdFX and sit by the fireplace to work on the poem that is one of the few pieces of mandatory gear for tomorrow's event. The siding contractor asked if he could work all weekend to make up for the hurricane so our day was punctuated with whining saws and hammer thumps. But our old siding was decaying and the new stuff looks nice, so the construction noise made me very happy.

By late afternoon, I felt better and was inspired to do some leg/hip strength training that had to be cut short due to dinner.

Phew! OK, the road bike is on the trainer. I am terrible at changing tight road tires. I need a crew driving in a car behind me.

Snow!!!

Hard Core Live with Caron. She's ramping it up now that the program is up to Week 6. Too bad I missed 3 of the weeks so far!

Lots of quad and shoulder strength and stretching tonight. We did a really good hip/IT stretch, and it felt quite different on one side (harder on the right), which is always a red flag. It's a *good* red flag though since it tells me what to work on.

Not sure what it's called but you lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Lift your right foot and lay your right ankle on top of your left knee. Your right knee sticks out to the right side as if you've crossed your legs while sitting down. First do some slow reps where you lift your left foot off the floor and pull your left knee up toward your chest. Then with your left foot on the floor, tip your left knee to the left toward the ground until your right foot (still on the knee) sits flat on the floor. Hold. And hold some more. We'd done the first part before but I don't remember ever doing the second.

Is it OK if I log 6 hours of *thinking* about converting my road bike to the trainer over the past 10 days? Tomorrow! Really! Hold me to it, Attackpoint people.

I had to head into town for a bunch of errands starting with a chiro appointment but my Subaru had turned into a Suba-won't. Grrr. After four full-day service appointments in Toronto and a lot of money spent - both by me and by Subaru under warranty - it remains seriously unreliable. I am one more full-day appointment away from buying a new car. The only thing stopping me is figuring out a way to get the car 60 km to the Subaru dealer. Oh, and figuring out a way to get myself home.

Anyway... I phoned Dr. Thumbs-of-Death to postpone my appointment, changed into running-in-the-cold-rain clothes, and filled a big pack with street clothes, dry shoes, purse, etc. Then I ran to 'Bent's dental office to steal his van. I caught him with one of his groupies - Slowrunner.



Dr. Thumbs-of-Death is a strapping 6'4" man with the nickname of "Moose". It was a wee bit difficult to take him seriously when he discussed my foot problem while batting his gold-encrusted false eyelashes at me. But he inflicted some pretty good pain on my gimpy foot in spite of his girlie appearance. Perhaps I'm imagining it but there may have been a few less truly excruciating moments today. My foot is making a comeback.



While I'm in a Hallowe'en mood, here's my favourite parent/child costume this year.



Light snow is in the forecast for Friday! :)

Here's a cool-looking new ultra. Leanimal, maybe this should be your first 80K? It's at the end of June and in Chamonix, same as UTMB. Scenery looks OK. :)

Teaser 80km du Mont-Blanc from MOUSS PRODUCTION on Vimeo.

In case you didn't see it last night, Adam Van Koeverden gave Rick Mercer kayaking lessons in Algonquin Park. Stick around to the end to see Rick in Adam's racing kayak (spoiler: not for long). Adam continues to come across as an impressive guy, and since he kept his shirt on for the entire segment (alas), I just mean that he's a great ambassador for Canadian sport - and heck, for Canada in general.

BulletDog and I ran around Palgrave West looking for downed trees and branches from Hurricane Sandy. Other than one nasty widowmaker dangling onto the trail to K-bash woods, it was all minor damage - less than we usually see after a wind storm. The forest is thoroughly soaked from the last week of rain. Naturally, this is the week we were supposed to get the siding replaced on our house.

Time to get back to this. My gimpy foot will benefit, and I'd especially like to work on glutes and hips over the winter.

Fitness promotion in our town

Turns out exercise makes you crave money less. Given the price of gear, travel and entry fees, this comes in very handy.

Toronto this morning after Sandy.


Photo by Frank Gunn of the Canadian Press

Added our official Salomon team photo to the Oct. 28 entry.

Pre-Hurricane Sandy Report

- 'Bent's dental office had no power this morning but it seems to be back.
- Wind warning in effect with the highest winds (90 kph) predicted to hit after dark
- Rain for much of the week although it doesn't look that heavy
- Drinking water containers are all filled (our well pump needs electricity).
- Generator gas can is full (we turn it on periodically to save our frozen food).
- Thermostat is turned up a little above our usual 14C in case the heat goes out later.
- About to fetch a big load of firewood
- Charging up electronic devices

Ready to hunker down! (If we have to.)