Training Log Archive: Bash

Raid The Hammer
Waterdown
Tree Huggers with Browner and Dee

In the past 7 weeks, I don't think I've tried to run more than 5 km at a time, and it's been on relatively smooth terrain other than Peak-2-Peak, which I mostly walked. So today was a huge stretch; I wore an ankle brace and felt creaky and horribly out of shape.

But what a nice day! The sunny, cool weather was perfect for running. The race course was interesting and varied with some challenging navigation on good maps. My teammates were great with Dee toughing it out with a cold and in considerable pain, while Browner navigated with me and was the strongest of us all. We crossed (and crossed and crossed) Grindstone Creek, squeezed through a narrow crack to climb the escarpment, and picked our way around rocks and crevices near Kerncliff Park.

There were two Matrix sections, one at the beginning (Hidden Valley Park) and one at the end (subdivision streets near Waterdown District High - nasty on my metal spikes). The final large map was held back until the moment we needed it. Our navigation was clean except for a small bobble when I got distracted and started to go to #14 after #7, rather than #8. As one does. Sigh.

I'd be interested to know what people thought about the new rule where racers only need to get within two large steps (max 5 m) of the flag, except for the racers with the SI cards. I thought it was a great improvement - safer and more practical than having everyone touch the flag. We didn't arrive at CPs with other teams very often so I don't know if it reduced cheating but I assume it did.

We raced in the Masters category and placed 3rd of 5 behind some strong men. Overall, we were 16th of 28 if I've counted right. There were also 59 teams in the Half Raid, which didn't exist when I started Raiding The Hammer so our results used to look better than they do now. ;)

My only complaint is that my tights didn't pick up many burrs, making it difficult to test the Burr Paw that I just bought on Work4justice's advice. I wish I'd had this for Peak-2-Peak.
https://www.amazon.ca/BurrPaw-Multi-Purpose-Sticke...

Huge thank you to Anvil, Meghan and the team of volunteers who made this terrific event happen once again!

After a long day of work on the Orienteering Ontario archives with Laura S., I went for a short tour of Palgrave West with AdventureDog. This is the same route where I re-twisted my ankle two weeks ago but this time I was less of an idiot, i.e. I wore an ankle brace. I'll be running a lot farther at Raid The Hammer on Sunday, which will be interesting - although I hear our team will be doing some hiking too. Foot pain is still there.

Hard Core with Caron

Power Yoga for triathletes

'Bent and I were scheduled to try a new boot camp this morning but *everybody* else dropped out so the instructor cancelled. Boo. The highlight of my day ended up being another excruciating visit to Dr. Thumbs-of-Death.

Wild winds today so I stayed indoors and did my first treadmill run of the winter. Not my favourite but Youtube running videos won't watch themselves!

The most interesting one was the Ginger Runner's review of the new Suunto 9. It confirmed my plan to stick with the Suunto Ambit 3 Peak for the foreseeable future. The Suunto Spartan and Suunto 9 are great watches but if accurate data is your thing, you want the bulky antenna on the Ambit 3 Peak.

Sleep was cobbled together from uncomfortable airplane naps and a long nap when I got home. Not the most restful! It’s great to be home with my boys.