Training Log Archive: 'Bent

Salomon Adventure Challenge Champs - Bark Lake

SAC Champs with Bash and 3Pin. See Bash's log.

Once again, I felt sick the day before- shaky, weak and tired. I figured I'd start and bail if need be, rather than drop out first. After 4 hours of sleep I felt a little more human, and once we got started almost 3 hrs late I wasn't too bad.
We had a fairly reasonable first trek, but had to cross some marsh up to our knees, then hips, then necks- at 0C. From there we ran ridges, and met The Padre and the Hunger lads there. Once on roads, 3Pin was running hard and able to tow well. I helped on the hills a bit, but still wasn't feeling all that strong.

At TA1 Geoff told us we're about 35th. We launched behind Hunger, just ahead of Dave Zeitsma and his Women's Will, and Lo-Roe's team. At the first portage 3Pin whacked the yokeless boat on his head, where he had his glasses, so he looked pretty scary with a lot of gore running down his face. When Dave Z jogged his boat past us I somehow felt better, and took ours from 3Pin and ran past Dave and Hunger. Bash was cold but we paddled well, and passed another few teams on portages, finally catching up to LeAnimal and her Divas. The fall colours were astounding!

Next on the bikes, where Bash did some rock-solid nav through snowmobile trails of sand and muck, and some nice gravel roads. The 'Bent was a bit of a pain to bikewhack through deadfall, but fine overall. We discovered to our surprise that we were 9th at a CP, and that lit a fire under us.

We had enough warm clothes and good lights that we did the advanced trek. We saw ESAR, a co-ed team that could knock us off the podium, but they took the same wrong turn we did. After that, Bash's nav was right on. We ended up in a footrace with STORM, with 3Pin towing a reluctant Bash like a team of huskies, but they got us by 20 seconds. 5th co-ed and 9th overall. Hunger was 10th, and Lo-Roe 11. Scary story about LeAnimal getting her leg in a bear trap and her teammate mashing fingers to extract her, but that sort of trivial incident wouldn't keep the Divas from 6th.

A lot of good teams came staggering in in the dark after the course closed, including ESAR. Lots of others skipped advanced as they were cold and didn't have dry stuff, so this was a good Tree Hugger race- Come from behind with nav and attrition rather than a hammer-fest. Nice way to end the season.

Bah! Heading off to the SAC champs, and I think I've gotten a different chest cold just in time. :(
I feel pretty weak- just like the Rogaine.

Workout #1

Easy jog to work with T-dog.

I was going to jog home in the dark with T-dog, but a raging thunderstorm convinced us to hitch a ride with one of my kindly staff, who wouldn't want to see a dog out in that.

Nice fall commute. Perhaps I'll take the longer route home.

Biked home via the Red Dog and a bit of the Charlevoix trail.

Bulletdog and I took the long route home to avoid the deep woods on a very windy day.

Hard Core Monday

Running in the Don Valley

Hill intervals on the 2 minute hill coming out of the Don Valley trail South of Earl Bales.

Workout #3

Rode down to Albion and around absolutely everything and back. The 'bent worked like a dream, handling like it was on rails thanks to conditons that were neither muddy nor dusty. I had the best ride of the entire year, making all the tricky bits for the first time. Probably a level 5 for a fair bit, but it felt so good compared to riding with 25kg onboard.
Stopped on the road to move the world's biggest Praying Mantis.

What a nice morning! I rode into a field as the sun came up, and there were thousands of spider webs in the weeds outlined in dew in the rising sun and light frost.

Should have been an easy ride home, but carrying 4 bags of produce and my work pack home on the trails thru Palgrave was a little more work!

This seems to be peak harvest time for the organic farm we belong to.
Good thing I got an extra-expandable pannier that converts to a backpack.

Tight on time after an appt with Thumbs-of-Death, so only the first 1/2 of Workout 2.

Commute with Bulletdog. She's recovered from T.Fox for sure!

A nice night jog with Bash, Gazelle and Gazette, Phatty and LeAnimal around Palgrave.

We're losing G&G to Tadjikistan next week for a few years, and will miss our buddies and teammates.

Pushed the pace a bit with the boys for a loop from Duffy's through the Charlevoix trail. Nice to not run with a heavy pack or clogged lungs.

Easy jog/hike to work and back with the T-dog.
I'm surprisingly stiff from the hard, flat, fairly short run yesterday. Shows I haven't done any speed work for too-oo long.

Hard Core Monday with Bash.

Ran the Terry Fox run with Bulletdog.
It's supposed to be 10km, an out-and-back, but the turn-around was farther than the one last year on the same trail, and several of us thought it was about 10.5km.

I don't know if it was the longer course, the residue of my cold or stopping to swim Bulletdog, but it took 3 minutes longer than last year. Bulletdog almost dislocated my arm when we met Bash on the way back. I don't think I'm meant to be a 10K runner.
Bulletdog rasied $635 and we were 3rd finishing (Actually I'm not sure if I crossed before bulletdog)

C • Great Job!!! 2

The rest of workout 1

Down to Albion and around. I cut it a bit short, as every time I hit a bump my upper left teeth hurt- classic sign of maxillary sinusitis.

I was trying out a new cordless computer, as I'm sick of wires breaking in adventure races. On my 'bent it's hard as the handlebars are far from the front wheel, so I mounted it on the frame near the headset. It worked well until the transmitter fell off and I had to backtrack for ages to locate it.

Workout #1- first 2/3 or so before I ran out of time.

C • sick 2

Run with Bash and both beasts.
Thumbs-of-death says my left kneecap is welded down and needs to be loosened up.

Ride to my evening environmental meeting. Who meets until 9:30 on a Friday night? Used the Mega LED for the ride back, whth my new mini rechargeable Lithium battery. What a light!

C • LED 4

Easier run to work. The bulletdog really needed this one!

Tried to jog home, but I hade a huge pack full of produce from our weekly farm delivery, probably 20kg, so I hiked briskly.

Hard Core Dvd- missed the last 5 minutes when saved by the power outage. Hacking too much to run to work.

Cold's still nasty. I guess a night of lots of exercise, no rest and no sleep didn't cure it.

My feet are perfect though- the new Ecco Receptor shoes were great!

Laurentian Rogaine with Bash.
A very interesting and fun rogaine, with gorgeous small Laurentian towns as well as wilderness CPs.
I was feeling terrible before the start, but lots of vitamin P (Pseudoephedrine) not only made me feel better but I think it kept me awake too. Still, we planned a conservative route in case I collapsed in a heap somewhere, and carried lots of warm stuff if I needed a long sleep.

As it happens, we ran more in the first 10 hours than any other rogaine, trying to get as much done in daylight as possible. Bash was very strong, and her nav was excellent. We got much hard stuff, and left easier CPs for dark.

By the night I was still feeling well enough to tow up hills, and didn't sleep at all. It was clear we'd underplanned. We ended up running out of CPs to clean up at the end. The remaining ones were in poor locations, and by the morning Bash's feet were the wost she's ever had, so we had to hobble long ways to get what remained.

We still did OK, considering my illness and Bash's feet, 3rd co-ed I think. 1779/2020 points. If we'd planned to do more from the start, we could have almost cleaned the course. We may have been the top Masters team, but there weren't any age-group categories.

Bender and Billy blew the race apart, finishing everything with many hours to spare! SRS was first co-ed and also cleaned the course.

It was great to do one with Bash again, and we make a good team.

Yep, definitely got Bash's cold!

Workout # 3- A bit lethargic as I may have Bash's cold just in time for the Rogaine this weekend.

A jog-hike to work with T-dog. I thought it would just be a stroll, but T-dog had me jogging along a fair bit to keep up with her. Senior dog my foot!

Trot home in the dark with T-dog. Once again, not the gentle walk I was expecting.

I've definitely got Bash's cold. We should be a great team at the Rogaine- Napping at the Hash House versus our usual stay-out-all-night is sounding better and better.

Nice run to work.

Fast run home, a combination of tempo and hills. Thought it would take longer!

Short brisk AM paddle

Longer paddle with Bash up the creek

We ran the Mizzy lake trail down to the road. Treacherous footing in pouring rain, so we ran the road back.

Minising trail with Bash. It was muddier and rockier than it's ever been, but still a great ride, and we tried to burn off yesterday's fabulous dinner.
We visited Hingo and the gang as a warmup.

A mix of solo kayak paddling and canoe paddling down to the rock where we got married in convoy with a big fleet of family. I paddled with Bash's mom, Bash soloed a kayak.
We managed to sweet-talk the folks on the rock where we got married into letting us all climb up and recall 10 years ago.