Training Log Archive: Bash

Stars W.A.R. (Winter Adventure Race)
Scenic Caves, Collingwood

Bluebird day - can't imagine anything better to do today than ski and snowshoe around a beautiful forest looking for flags and catching spectacular views over Georgian Bay.

'Bent and I reviewed the map. With an extensive trail network in a small area, it was going to require full concentration on the race course. In addition, there was a complex system of valuable bonus points that we didn't study carefully enough before the race. Sitting at home now on a comfy couch, the instructions on the map are totally clear so I just spent too much time looking at the map instead of the words. At least we weren't the only ones!



With the temperature forecast to rise to 9C, we wanted to ski first. It wouldn't be a fast day on the trails but it was going to get slower as things warmed up. In fact, it was surprisingly good. We had spring conditions but there was plenty of snow and our waxless classic racing skis worked perfectly.

We may have been the only ones to start with 43, possibly the only team to ski there instead of snowshoeing. Our strategy was to do lots of skiing, both on trails and bushwhacking. We sometimes skied right beside snowshoe trails since we weren't allowed to ski on them. After skiing for 2 hours, we snowshoed for the final hour, mostly in the hilly northeast part of the map.

After 43, we did 34-35-36. Looking only at the lines joining them on the map, we didn't realize we could do 34-35, 44, 35-36, which would have saved a lot of time. Someone asked this question in the race briefing but I took a different meaning from it. I think most people got this right.

From 36, we sidestepped and herringboned off-trail up to the lookout at 42, then skied to the southwest field to pick up 151-153-155-157 while Nick took photos. Then, because we thought we had to do 32-33-31 in sequence without any other controls in between, we did a nasty out-and-back bushwhack to 44, which took 14 minutes. Then 32-33-31. Another oops - we failed to notice there were 80 more bonus points if we went back to the starting point of the triangle, 32. It sounded like most people missed that. Then we skied back to HQ to switch to snowshoes.

We headed into the steep, snowy, hilly terrain east of the Eco-Centre, including three trips over the famous Scenic Caves suspension bridge. By this point, the sun was baking us and I wished I was running in shorts while eating ice cream. 41-40-39-38-48-37-45-46-47. I got nervous about timing near the end and was grateful for 'Bent's towing power on snowshoes but we cleaned the course with 6 minutes to spare. If we'd read the instructions properly, it wouldn't have been so close to the wire! Most of our friends were already there enjoying post-race snacks in the sunshine; quite a few were in dry clothes already.

Timato and nosnhoj had cleaned the course with 39 minutes to spare. Timato enlightened us on our missed opportunities, none of which he had missed. I wasn't surprised when they took the win, nor when BobTheNavigator and Hermes finished 2nd, but I was genuinely shocked when Nick announced we were 3rd of 22 teams and 1st Masters. I'd convinced myself that we'd totally messed up. So that was nice. :) Even better, 'Bent got some wine and I took home a 400 g chocolate bar.



Thanks to Nick and the Stars for all their work to give us another fun day of playing in the woods. This race is always a highlight of the winter!

News on our team name:
Tree Hugging Now Scientifically Validated

'Bent and I went for another session with Coach Jeff. The running-specific exercises and drills were mostly different this time so now we have a long list of things to work on at home.

Since we were 25 minutes away from MEC, we went shopping to replace our 3-person tent, which self-destructed on our New Year's camping trip. Incredibly, MEC gave us a gift certificate equal to the 2007 purchase price of our old tent, claiming that the defects we'd experienced were well known to them. We wrote back and offered to take a smaller amount since we'd used the tent for all those years but they insisted.

Today we found an updated version of our 2007 tent with the defects addressed - on clearance sale since it has recently been replaced with a fancier, lighter weight model. Since this is the tent we use when we camp with dogs, we're happy with the more durable version. So our gift certificate covered all but $25 of the cost of the new tent - pretty amazing after nine years. Thank you, MEC!

We had light snow or snow flurries most of the day but it wasn't convincing. After yesterday's rain, there were huge, dark puddles in the new snow so I knew the forest wasn't as wintry as it was pretending to be. 'Bent bravely skied to work and said it was OK. I wasn't so sure.



Instead of another run with Kahtoolas or spiked shoes, I tried a snowshoe run around Palgrave East. Conditions ranged from slush to ankle-deep powder to breakable crust to hard ice - pretty much every kind of winter trail condition. Some sections were hard to run through but it was a good day for snowshoes. I met Slowrunner out for a long run; otherwise the forest was empty.



There's a thin layer of ice on the trees so some trails were littered with debris. Branches were hanging low and I made the mistake of ignoring a nice, soft-looking pine bough that was dangling in my way. Normally, I could encounter a pine bough while running and just brush it lightly aside. Today it felt like running into a bag of cement! So I tried to avoid bumping into all but the smallest branches.

Sunset views were gorgeous with sparkling icy trees in front but none of those shots turned out so I'll just have to remember it.

Hard Core Live

Caron's class

First time on a treadmill since June 2014 and I survived it, thanks to Dirtbag Diaries podcasts.

Warm-up, 6 X 2 min intervals at increasing pace with 2 min rest, Cooldown.

I considered going outside in the snow-sleet-rain storm to test my gear but I was expecting a phone call and also probably a power outage if the ice build-up continues. That meant there were portable batteries to charge, water containers to fill and a fire to stoke. BazingaDog didn't stay outside for long either; he was unimpressed when the rain froze onto his gorgeous black coat.

AdventureDog and I enjoyed a sunny run around Palgrave West - the calm before tomorrow's storm. The trails were 60% dry and 40% glare ice so Kahtoolas saved the day again. Even dog claws slipped on some of the hills.

Tiara Tuesday at Boot Camp - the last class of each month is "special". First Caron wore us out and then she made us do Tabatas. She does the class herself and never stops smiling. How is that possible? The rest of us grimaced, grunted and gasped. I'll be sore tomorrow.

Wow, these GPS Doodles are incredible! I think it's a tie between #4 and #6, although I'm partial to Darth Vader too.
http://www.boredpanda.com/bike-gps-doodle-stephen-...

Coach Jeff & Dr. Bell stuff
My legs are tired from yesterday's climbs.