Training Log Archive: Bash

'Bent tried to ride the trails he'd raked on our back hill yesterday. Some of it went really well, some of it less well because the trail is still soft - but there is a ton of potential. This is going to be fun!

I didn't feel great today so I stayed home and did some tasks inside and out. I never do well when the weather suddenly turns hot. I'm hoping that's all it is.

Yesterday when I was still feeling energetic, I registered for my first virtual race - Limitless Vertical Challenge by Aravaipa Running. So far I haven't felt inspired to pay $50 to do a short virtual race on our trails although I'd probably do it for a race director I know well. A lot of the virtual challenges have been about going fast or going far, neither of which seem advisable when I'm recovering from injury.

For Limitless, there are 6 different achievement levels for vertical climb over a 1-week period from tomorrow to next Sunday. The lowest level is 1250 feet of climb in a week (381 m) and the highest level is double Everest. This will give me a theme for the week and maybe take me to some different places nearby.
https://runsteep.com/limitless/

This morning's planned run before SMT Zoom ended up being 600 m with a long break to chat with our next door neighbour in person for the first time in several months. He's a working engineer in his late 70s and is always running around with a chainsaw or small tractor. He and his wife are in excellent health and we'd like to keep it that way so we've made a point of giving them plenty of space since the pandemic started. He's a ventilation expert with lots of ideas about air exchange in dental offices, which is a really hot topic.

The more we stay home, the more ideas we have about how to make home better. We decided to build our own mountain bike single track trail. 'Bent flagged a route on our back hill as Phase 1, and I walked it with him so we could make final tweaks to the route. He started raking it and made terrific progress. We may be able to ride the first stretch within the next day or two.

Since outdoor interactions are safer than indoor ones, I decided to resurrect the old fire pit near the back of our property and create a campsite for visiting friends. It would be a great place to sit under the stars and enjoy campfire treats at a distance.

The problem was, the old fire pit was completely overgrown by dense weeds, and only a few of the old stones were visible under a mess of soil and thick, knee-high vegetation. It would be a huge, time-consuming job to clear the area so I texted another neighbour - a high school student. His Dad runs a construction company and got him a mini-front end loader when he was 4. His skills with machinery are amazing. He expects to become a contractor but I don't know if he has what it takes because:

1) He offered to come over 5 minutes after we exchanged texts.
2) He looked at our insanely difficult job and said it would be pretty easy.
3) He returned a few minutes later and did the insanely difficult job in 30-40 minutes with two different machines.
4) I tried to pay him and he refused even though I made three serious attempts. "We have to help each other out," he said.

Really nice kid.

I spent a while digging out buried stones and carrying them to a pile. Basically, it was CrossFit. :) We're going to rebuild the fire pit and move it over a little.

Since I was already dirty, it was a perfect time to plant the vegetable garden and pull some weeds. If I can face the line-ups, we could use another few seedlings but we'll be OK either way. Fingers crossed it rains tomorrow!

Overnight, some critter ate the red kale that was waiting to be planted in our veggie garden - some of the seedlings that were so hard to find yesterday after waiting in various socially distant line-ups. All the other vegetable seedlings were untouched. That reminded me that a critter ate the red kale in our garden last year too. I'm torn between wanting to plant some because it's obviously yummy - or planting something else that isn't delicious enough for critters to eat. Hmm.

'Bent and I drove to Albion Hills on a spectacular and very warm spring day. (We drove because foresters are working along our neighbour's trail to the conservation area and our road is being torn up so we're trapped.) We rode together for the first half hour then spun off to do our own thing. I rode mostly different trails from Wednesday - kinda cool there is so much variety.

I was leaning aggressively on the corners, enjoying terrific grip - until I hit 8 cm of sand on the outside of one corner. I slammed down instantly, ramming the end of my handlebar into my left quad. That's going to be a really pretty bruise.

Conditions are mostly excellent other than a few deep ruts on double track where logging crews drove in mud. Until this week, I'd forgotten how rooty and rutted the Albion trails had become because they're so heavily used. It makes for a tough workout because you need a lot of momentum to get uphill. Good practice, though. I still love my Pivot 29er. :)

I thought Albion Hills would be crowded at noon on a Friday when it's only been open for a week but I only saw three other riders. We'll be steering clear of the crowds on the weekend. It's only fair, given that some people are actually working and paying taxes so we'll happily let them ride on Saturdays and Sundays.

Getting seedlings for the vegetable garden turned out to be a challenge. Because of the weather forecast, I waited until this week but I should have predicted that everyone would become a vegetable gardener while baking loaves of sourdough bread.

After waiting in a distanced line to get into the place where I usually buy seedlings, I discovered that most of the plants I wanted were sold out. I only got zucchini and a few tomatoes. On the bright side, I discovered the existence of "Campbell Tomatoes". They'd better taste mmm good.

Then I went to the larger garden centre down the road. I started waiting in their long, distanced line but bailed when I realized that the plants in my car would die in the sun before I ever got inside.

Heading back north, I noticed that a grocery store had a small garden centre in its parking lot. I scored big time there - kale, chard, basil, cilantro, arugula and cherry tomatoes. I'm still hoping for more seedlings but this should be enough to get us fresh veggies on a regular basis.

Last but not least, I bought my first tank of gas for my new car, which I drove home from Toronto just over 10 weeks ago on March 11. I still had a quarter tank left!

Somehow everything takes longer these days so I never got around to running.

As restrictions have eased in Ontario in recent weeks, it's been concerning to watch the Covid 19 numbers. Things are not moving in the right direction.

Ontario's Active Cases had plateaued after starting their downward curve. For the past 4 days, they've been going up again. (Click if you want to see the depressing fine print.) Let's hope that's a blip, not a real trend.



Hospitalizations have remained steady for the past few weeks at the flattened top of their curve (we hope). Some patients stay in hospital a long time. The good news is that ICU and ventilator requirements have decreased significantly.



And it's not good to see Rt above 1.0 again.



We're all eager to get back to something closer to our normal lives, and a lot of people are in trouble financially. I just hope things aren't moving too quickly.

Reference: Dr. Jennifer Kwan on Twitter - a Burlington physician who produces an interesting collection of Ontario graphs each morning.

Sadly - but not unexpectedly - UTMB 2020 has announced its cancellation. As an event that runs through three countries and brings together 10,000 runners from 90 countries along with family members, spectators and volunteers, there was no way it could happen in its usual form this year. I feel for the runners who had spent years qualifying, training and going through the lotteries. One friend finally got into Western States *and* UTMB in 2020 after years of trying. Sigh.

Dr. Theresa Tam has officially recommended non-medical face masks for indoor situations where physical distancing is difficult or impossible, including public transit and shopping in crowded stores. Without a working sewing machine, my homemade face mask is taking forever and doesn't look very good. I looked online last week and found lots of expensive masks, mostly sold out. I ended up getting us locally made cotton masks from a leather studio in Rockwood, Ontario. Most of them are only $15 and they're giving some to midwife clinics. As masks go, they're nice looking and sometimes even fun. I got #14, Moose'ly Canadian.
https://www.hidesinhand.com/masks.html#!/MASKS/c/4...

Another gorgeous day! After the ordeal of grocery shopping, I rode through Palgrave Forest to the village, up the sidewalk to the rail trail and into Albion Hills for the first time this year. The park is closed but the trails opened up last week. There appears to be some legal parking for visitors along roads at the north edge of the park. The northern trails were busy enough that I almost bailed but on a hunch, I rode to the south end, which would normally be busier because it's closer to the main (closed) mountain bike parking. Today it was relatively quiet. This was my longest ride of the year and my legs were feeling it!

I ran into Crash and her pooches near home and had a nice chat - better than Zoom.

After turning my ankle in Sunday's hike, I figured I'd better do a run on the treadmill to make sure my foot is still operational. Yup. It's still a little sore like it always is - maybe a little more - but I think I can go back to gravel road running.

I'm thinking about the Aravaipa Running Limitless Vertical Challenge virtual race next week. I can hike or run so it doesn't matter that I'm not doing much distance these days. For sure, I could get up to Level 2 (Camelback Mountain) in a week. I'd have to work really hard to reach Level 3 (Mount Mitchell) around here. They're thinking the people at Level 6 (double Everest) will almost have to run on a treadmill where they can do all uphill without any downhill.
https://runsteep.com/limitless/