Training Log Archive: Bash

Event: Stars W.A.R. (Winter Adventure Race)
 

Stars W.A.R. (Winter Adventure Race)
Mansfield Outdoor Centre

Beautiful winter conditions, an interesting race course and great to see so many friends!

This year Stars W.A.R. was a 2.5 hour rogaine on snowshoes, which was fun although I hope the Stars will return to a ski/snowshoe format since that was (I think) unique in Canada with very cool strategy.

'Bent and I teamed up and put together a decent plan that I changed at the last minute as we were heading out. In most cases, that would be a mistake but this time I think it was the right choice.

We headed to the west side of Airport Road first since there was a high concentration of points in a relatively small but hilly area. I've only been in there a couple times before and the terrain is really interesting. (Who owns it, anyway?)

About 25 minutes in, 'Bent simultaneously stomped on the back of my snowshoe, pushed me uphill and asked "Is that helpful?", while ripping the right side of the binding off my snowshoe. :( Luckily, he had some repair gear to strap the snowshoe together although it wasn't super solid. It took us another half hour to realize that switching snowshoes to give him the broken one was the key to a happy marriage.

We lost about 8 minutes in various stops to deal with The Snowshoe Incident. Before that, we had been in the mix with some good teams and it felt exciting but now we were alone and didn't see anyone for a long time. It didn't feel like we were racing anymore and it took awhile before I started concentrating properly on the map again.

Luckily, that was our only real problem and it was a really fun day for snowshoeing. We had to skip 1 or 2 controls that would have been possible if we hadn't lost time before, and we finished 8 minutes early without any other controls within reach.

It was fun to see Hammer on the course several times and he gave us a couple of photos. The big news of the day was the impressive victory by Adventuregirl! and Hermes - the first female team to win Stars W.A.R. overall! Congratulations! Timato and Audrey were the Coed champions and 2nd overall. Lots of other great performances too. Thank you to Nick and the Stars for a terrific event!

Rodney Yee's Power Yoga for Flexibility DVD with some assistance from AdventureDog.

I dragged 'Bent into Lulu Lemon yesterday and passed him to a sales rep in the men's section as I headed for the yoga pants. She asked him, "Where do you practise?" He couldn't figure out how she knew he was a dentist... :)

Barrie Shepley was giving a talk tonight at the Personal Best fitness studio. Ever since it opened, I've thought about running to and from a class - or at least one way - but it hasn't happened. Most of the run is on the Oak Ridges Trail and Bruce Trail, and there are lots of hills. 'Bent agreed to give it a try this evening. We left a little late and had to bail to a road from the north part of Glen Haffy in order to make it in time. This meant running along the shoulder of Hwy 9 for the last 1.5 km - yikes! It was a little cold sitting indoors in damp clothes, even with the extra layers we'd carried. Caron made us coffee, which warmed us up perfectly! The talk was good too - insights and stories about dreams, working toward goals, celebrating the process, etc.

We ran home in the dark - chilly and invigorating! This time we didn't have to hurry so we took snowy trails almost the whole way and stopped to look at the stars. It's a net downhill coming home from Glen Haffy so it's always more fun. :)

Caron's core class

C3 Yoga - nice to have 'Bent there.

We came home and wrestled our new king mattress up the too-narrow staircase. We've done this before and it's not fun so I'd confirmed with the salesperson that the delivery people would do that. No problem - a foam mattress can be folded, and "installation" was included in the $$$$ price. But it turns out that's not true in winter. Apparently, the mattress was "frozen" on the truck and would be damaged if they bent it to fit through the narrow staircase. (FB, is that true?) So they left it just inside the front door, and we got a post-yoga workout.

I had planned a boring hill repeat workout but when the sun came out and I heard that Dave Moule had enough new snow to roll the trails at Hockleycrest today, I changed plans. I hadn't yet tried the new Fischer Backcountry waxless skis 'Bent got me for Christmas. They weren't the right skis for nice, rolled trails - too slow - but they should be great for setting new tracks in deeper snow around here. I was pleasantly surprised to meet Nick de St. Croix and his wife Brenda in the parking lot. They just discovered Hockleycrest recently too.

Dr. Hrkal's Injury Prevention Circuit

AdventureDog and I ran the Hockley Provincial Park loop, sticking to the main Bruce Trail rather than taking the first side trail since we need more hill training. (This route variation doesn't affect the distance much but it really affects the climb.)

The trails are in amazing shape for running compared to anything else around here. Spiked shoes are perfect for most of it; there are a few stealth patches of ice hidden under the snow on about 0.5% of the route. As expected, the ice patches tend to be in the most dangerous places, and I slipped off a step on a steep descent but caught myself before my back slammed into the log.

Otherwise, it was fantastic. I felt like the strength work this month helped me on the uphills. It was my fastest time around this route in almost three years. I give partial credit to our friendly hipster appliance repairman who phoned to say he could come over with the new pump for our washing machine today. The laundry is piling up so I accepted his offer, which meant I needed to be home sooner. I should use that strategy more often.

Metric Race Distances Banned
"The metric system is a disaster."
#FakeNewsDontWorry
https://dumbrunner.com/news-blog/2017/1/27/with-ex...

Mix of free weights, body weight and foothab.

Sunshine!! It's been awhile. Get outside and boost your Vitamin D.

Or else wait at home for the washing machine repair technician to arrive between 11 and 4. Whichever you prefer.