Training Log Archive: Bash

It's two weeks to the Kettle 100K, a race where heat can be a factor, so I ran the Hockley Loop in the middle of the day with a forecast of 27C.

Last night I put a 1.5 L bladder in the fridge and set up the Skin pack I'll be using at the Eiger Ultra Trail. As I was heading out this morning, I had a gut feeling that I should add another 500 ml soft flask of water.

Gut feelings can be incredibly helpful; they draw on considerable experience with long training days and hot weather runs. So would it have been so hard for my gut to remind me to take the 1.5L bladder out of the fridge and bring it along?!?!? Grrrr.

I realized my mistake in the Hockley parking lot when my pack was unbelievably light. Yup, unbelievable. I looked at the 500 ml soft flask and briefly contemplated running 23 hot, hilly kms with it. No, that would be insane. So I drove 10 minutes to the Hockley General Store and bought two 1L bottles of water. So now I had too much water and the bottles were awkwardly stuffed into my pack, bashing my lower back. Periodically, I had to stop, take off my pack and refill the soft flask from the big bottle. Ah well, I deserved it.

I did the loop counterclockwise from 5th Line for a change of scenery. It's nice to get the B*tches done early. (Btw for future hill training, it is 220 m elevation gain and 132 m loss in the 4 km from the 5th Line parking lot to the 15th Sideroad hilltop west of trail exit.) Podcasts were Endurance Planet, This American Life, CBC's Rewind and Under The Influence. No heroics - I walked a lot of hills.

I met Jocelyn B. and Lesa P.S. running the other direction near the north end of Hockley Provincial Park. They were on their 2nd loop of the day. I met them again when we'd both come around half the loop. They'd made a wrong turn and were now up to 44 km and had run out of water. It was their lucky day - and mine. I was 3.5 km from my car and still had a full 1L bottle of water. So we all filled up and I got to finish my run with 1 kg less on my back!

Was this some kind of Motorcycle Appreciation Day? I saw dozens of people out doing group rides - many more than usual. Veinbuster, know anything about it? Or is this just what summer will be like?

Sulphur Springs Trail Race - cheerleading for 'Bent's DontGetLost relay team and - to a lesser extent, of course - the other DGL relay team. Great to see so many friends - Trav & Baloney, Frankenjack & Rockstara, Hodgepodge & Nelvia, Super, Bender, Timato, Johnny_M, Anvil, Sudden, Tarno & Milla, Browner, Chris Phillips... I'm definitely forgetting some people. Mom came over from Brantford to help cheer, then we went to lunch.

I should have taken more pics!

Timato rocked his 50K.



'Bent didn't look at his watch and finished within a minute of his estimated 20K lap time in the relay.



Johnny_M was on his way to 3rd place in the 50 miler



Sudden powered up the final hill.



Anvil and Timato post 50K. Is it better to train by doing a few runs in between business trips or by doing lots of pull-ups? Looks like either method can work.

Hard Core Live with Caron. I don't usually attend the late spring session but it was nice to be back. We celebrated BGY's birthday with the appropriate number of two-stage sit-ups. (Lots!)

Class

Around Palgrave Forest with AdventureDog. I was worried about a right knee twinge after Tuesday's downhill running but it is gone now. Good thing since A-Dog made a sudden turn in front of my shins and sent me flying forward into the dust. My right arm and knee hit first and I needed a moment to regroup.

Time was also deducted for the standard dog pit stops and a swimming lesson fail. A-Dog was interested when I threw a stick into the middle of the pond but he was smart enough to check the direction of the wind and find the correct place to wait onshore for the stick to return.

A little more time deducted for another annoying "important call from Marriott Hotels". I should write and blast them but that steals even more time they don't deserve.

Given how much running I've done in the past week, I was happy with how good I felt. The cooler weather really helps. Unfortunately, we'll be back to Harps Weather again soon. Poison ivy is thriving btw. It was really hard to keep A-Dog from getting into it along the trail.

Coffee is good for us (again).
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/upshot/more-cons...

Inspired by BugsinTeeth's training for the Canadian Death Race, I went to the Grange hill near Inglewood. It's a moderate-to-poorly maintained gravel road with potholes, loose gravel and big corduroy so it's like running on a trail. The sign at the top claims the upper part has a 10% grade.

I did 5 repeats up and down, running (slowly) 100% of the time with no stops. Each uphill interval took almost exactly 10 minutes. I've never tried that before and couldn't have done it in warmer weather. The goal was 600 m vertical - a random number that seemed like plenty for today.

In case anyone wonders why I'm worried about hills again this year, this is the Eiger Ultra Trail profile - at 6700 m elevation gain for 101 km, that's a little more climb per km than UTMB - which has not proven to be my easiest race!

Mix & match of Caron Shepley's 10 Minutes 2 Zen Youtube videos. My body is relatively pain-free after Saturday's run, maybe because I've kept moving all weekend. All the same, I didn't want to push my luck by doing too much today.

Caron's "Mac workout" core strength video. Hoping to do more later but company is coming and the house is not tidy.