Training Log Archive: Bash

Skiing Snowgaine Style - womp womp womp! Conditions are still so nice around Palgrave that 'Bent and I stayed here again. We toured Albion Hills on waxless skis via a combination of icy groomed trails (mostly), ungroomed trails, deep snow traibreaking, twisty single track and a little bushwhacking. Ski play - so much fun! :)

I bought a new liner for my sleeping bag yesterday so I had to get my bivy bag and try lying in the snow again - about half an hour this time, still sweaty from our ski outing. I was cool but not cold at 1C, but I didn't add any extra layers and I didn't use the tarp. Still undecided about which combo will go to Patagonia.

Today's podcast was CBC's Rewind - a 1974 documentary on the Franklin Expedition. We know more about it today but it was interesting to hear their take on it at the time. One new piece of info for me... Many of us know that the grief-stricken Lady Franklin funded multiple expeditions to search for her husband. It turns out that Franklin had a daughter from his first marriage, and her wedding was approaching. She wasn't fond of her father and took Lady Franklin to court in an effort to stop her from spending the family fortune on the search!

In honour of Coach LD's long ski on the Humber River yesterday, I present this video montage from the 2012 Slush Cup in Juneau, Alaska. It sounds like our local river was nicely frozen yesterday but we might want to try this in March when things start to melt.

I hit the Outdoor Adventure Show today partly to check out the current demographic to see if AR would be a good fit. The AR companies used to attend the show a number of years ago. The Mud Hero folks were there this time. I also had a couple of kayak sails to pick up for Tierra Viva from White Squall and Algonquin Outfitters. I apologize in advance to all the people I'm going to hit accidentally with these sails when they suddenly pop up to 8 times their folded size. It will take some practise to collapse them quickly but I think they're going to work well.

One of the show's highlights was Les Stroud's presentation, which included three songs by his band, some terrific film and a Q&A. His 15-year-old son Logan has asked him for a "Survivorman and Son" episode, and they are going to do it. Like Revy, Logan (not to be confused with Revy's Logan) has a "no bushwhacking through jungles" policy so they're going to choose a relatively friendly location in North America. Les mentioned that his 10-day survival experience in Norway - which I didn't see because we don't get the channel - was his most difficult to date. I'd like to find that somewhere.

Got home late in the day so time was tight. I increased my pack load to 10 kg (22 lb) and went for a hilly snowshoe trek around Palgrave West. It was mostly trailbreaking with lots of hills, including some where I was grabbing at saplings to haul myself up - or sliding back down if I failed to grab a sapling.

Pre-dinner ski round Palgrave West with 'Bent and BulletDog as light snow swirled around us. Perfect.

Today I'm toasting Fauja Singh, who is running his final race - a 10K - this Sunday, shortly before his 102nd birthday. In honour of his retirement from racing, ESPN has published a wonderful profile with beautiful photos. I hadn't known that he was unable to walk as a child and that he took up running at the age of 89 to deal with grief from a family tragedy. He decided to do his first marathon only 10 weeks before the race, and his coach was horrified when he arrived at his first training session dressed formally in a 3-piece suit! At the age of 92, he ran three marathons in half a year (but found the last one difficult). He set a few running records. He was the first person to run a marathon over age 100, although the record wasn't recognized officially.

For those of us who have ever thought it's too late to achieve some dream for our lives - athletic or otherwise - Fauja Singh is an inspiration.

Raise a toast tonight to Alex Harvey, first Canadian man to medal at a World Cross-Country Ski Championship! (Bronze in Classic Sprint.)
http://www.cccski.com/Media/Press-Releases/Canada’...

Former Tree Hugger Brittany Webster is at the senior world champs for the first time.

I'd been planning to take a rest day other than yoga/core class but I got scheduled for a 24-hr Holter monitor test since I'm one of those lucky athletes with occasional heart arrhythmias. The lab technician wouldn't be analyzing a typical day if I didn't do any training so I headed to the Adventure Basement where I could keep tabs on all the wires attached to my body. I'm sure I'd have lost a few electrodes if I'd attempted yoga class or bushwhacking on snowshoes.

Warm-up
5 X 2 min climbs with 2 min medium pace in between
Cooldown

First time on the treadmill in a looooong time. Increased speed by 0.2 mph every minute until I got to 6.4 mph, then started to step back down. (Sadly, our treadmill doesn't speak metric.)

Today's Tierra Viva update:

1) Discovered that White Squall and Algonquin Outfitters each have one Windpaddle kayak sail and can bring them to the Outdoor Adventure Show this weekend. Glad to be able to support two of my favourite outdoor stores!

2) Learned Spanish.

BazingaDog and I went out and bushwhacked up and down hills, breaking trail in crusty snow up to mid-shin deep. I had a 15 lb pack. BZDog only pulled me onto my face a couple of times - once slamming my kneecap onto something hard. Ouch. Finished just as it got dark. Peaceful.

Listened to This American Life podcast on psychopaths today. Interesting.

Annual physical today so it was good timing when Wombat posted this classic health reminder. Ladies, take note.

A typical pre-Tierra Viva day:
- Make appointment at travel clinic for shots.
- Research kayak sails, try to borrow one, contact retailer for info.
- Locate high school Spanish texts.
- Try to arrange training sessions with teammates.
- Weigh sleeping bag.
- Discover that a New Zealand southern hemisphere compass is not the same as a South American southern hemisphere compass.
- Pile paddling gear on guest room bed.
- Find team gear list we used for Apex.
- ...

I had a long phone interview with a journalist writing a story on rogaining for the New York Times news wire. We had a great conversation. At the end, she reviewed her notes quickly to see if she had any final questions, then she asked me to clarify. "I can't really tell. Do you enjoy rogaining because it's difficult or because it's fun?" How to explain this stuff? :)

RIDES Southern California DVD. For some reason, we had to push at 75-80% intensity for quite a long time on a big downhill. It was a good workout but it wasn't helpful to look at the road onscreen because I couldn't stop thinking, "Why are we pedalling so hard? Have you not heard of gravity?!"
Ave watts 174, Ave cadence 75

Feeling stronger but I was aware of my left leg being weaker than my right, now that it has been pointed out to me at a running clinic.

I'd wanted to take advantage of today's sleet to test some gear but the weather isn't nasty enough anymore to make it worth going outside. Is it any wonder that my non-Attackpoint friends don't understand me? ;)

Easy snowshoe tour of Palgrave West with 'Bent, BazingaDog and BulletDog. We followed footprints leading to some of Saturday's control locations, aiming for some of the hillier routes. There is still lots of snow! We ran into Crash with her pack of pooches and told her how things went with the O-Cup race HQ at her house. Soooo nice of her to let us do that! She was doing a mountain bike race in Florida on Saturday while we were running around in the snow.

Ski tour on the Charlevoix Trail in Palgrave West. I'm feeling light-headed today for some reason but didn't want to miss out on such beautiful winter conditions. Alas, rain is in the forecast.