Training Log Archive: 'Bent

Too hot and smoggy for dogs, or for anything but a short easy ride.

Good news- something here even dorkier than a recumbent bike- Maybe those of us with lousy knees can run on this?

http://www.glidecycle.com/videos.html

C • Very Dorky 2

Already warm in the morning- the plan was a car ride for us back with Bash as it's too hot and smoggy for Bulletdog to run home.

C • Bash instead of BulletDog 3

A nice leisurely canoe with Bash around Little Joe and Baby Joe Lake.
Perfect day!

Flailing around in a little plastic tub kayak trying to keep up with Bash who was in my carbon boat. Nice paddle, but Bash dusted me on the way back with no effort at all.

Riding the LRS course-

See Bash's log for lots if pics and a detailed write-up.
<http://www.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_920/pe...>

Suffice it to say that I was really excited to do this ride, after being out of the race loop with my torn meniscus. The ride was going well, probably faster than last year due to Bash's lean mean power. Weather was perfect too.

On one rocky hill I had a low speed tip-over, but didn't clip out in time as I wanted to avoid hard knee rotation. No harm done to me, but my steering had that sickly wobbly feeling of fatigued aluminum. Sure enough, my stem was cracked half way through, but the bike was still rideable.
It gave up the ghost right in the most nasty part, the farthest from the road, and snapped off leaving such a small nub that the bike wasn't steerable to push.

I carried it over some nasty ground and brambles, attempted to push it but it wobbled and fell over constantly, then finally duct-taped and shock-corded it enough that it would auto-steer at a jogging pace once we hit a smoother ATV trail. Of course, that meant running on my knee for far too long, then carrying for a bit, then running some more.

Once we hit Pine Springs Road Bash headed for the van, while I bushed the bike and hiked out. Some kindly hunters gave me a 5k lift and a cold beer, and I run-hiked the rest until I saw the van coming. Bash had had a flat, and I had the tools, so it took a little longer than the ETA.
The Bullfrog van managed to make it to pick up the bike, but it was down to the wire all the way to Arowhon for dinner!

C • poor 'bent! 6

Mix of bikewhacking over logs through brambles, jogging behind the bike pushing while it auto-steered, and finally run-hiking to meet Bash and the van.
Well, my knee's definitely not healed- I felt it then and days later.

From our Japan trip, some athletic drumming.
Sorry, low quality video- it was pretty dim, but the drumming gets better as the video goes along.

Out with Bash, Harps and Goose at Albion. We rode around a bit looking for Phatty, and finally found him at the parking lot awash in a sea of flat inner tubes, pumping like mad to no avail. After he chased us off we had a nice solid ride- the course is a heck of a lot faster than the gloopy mud of the Solstice race.

Workout #1 + leg strength

Bulletdog and I did a tour of Palgrave East doubletrack.

Easy headlamp ride back.

Easy commute with Bulletdog, and a bit of extra on the way home.
Knee's a bit dicey still.

Rodney Yee Flexibility. I have none.

Too soggy for Albion, so I rode in the warm drizzle down the Rail Trail to Inglewood. Met up with Knobless who joined me for part way back, but cleverly turned around before the heavens opened up on me during the last half hour.

Bulletdog and I went out Goose hunting, as he was supposedly passing by on his 4.5 hr run. No Goose, and my knee was a bit sore from yesterday, so I walk-jogged back. Got hit in the teeth by a huge bee or something while walking, and got stung inside my lip to boot. @#$%!
Oh well, no allergic reaction, and it's fine 6 hours later.

Full workout 3 + leg strength, and the remainder of the Hard Core DVD.

Good solid ride with the Goose up to the Dingle and exploring various trails there. I haven't done sustained hills like that in a lo-o-ong time- I usually do this ride when training for a long race. Goose claims he's hardly ridden since WT, but had to wait for me atop a hill.
We had a great ride, with apple stops, until the Goose's seat post bolt broke, and we had to bolt for home with Goose doing his Contador-dancing-on-the-pedals impression.

I should probably have logged the day of errands I ran- so many I needed to chart the optimum route, before joining the Doughtys for dinner.

Hard Core DVD- I was going to bike but forecast was awful- and wrong.

C • Good for you! 3

Workout 2 + leg strength and a little core

Planned a lot longer ride but the morning got away from me, what with hiking the T-dog, working out, setting up the organic breakfast loaf in the breadmaker, and phone calls etc.

I started out with a big load, with veggies to deliver to Crash, Bulletdog's dinner, my 5finger shoes etc. Met the crew working on the Palgrave trails too.
3-swim route for bulletdog, with some singletrack at the end.

C • Thanks! 1

Scoot home. I just needed my headlamp for the last bit.

To work via singletrack and back via the East field route.
The bulldozed sand is firming up!

Bike in with Bulletdog. Soggy out after last night's storm, but cool.
I found a work-around to use the nicer commute again!
Nice ride home via Bulletdog's swimming river route.

Barefoot trot around ravines in Toronto- Bulletdog needed an outing!

Note- Kudos to team Guats for winning UNE, and for Bash and Running Free who were 4th overall, and ahead of a lot of *very* strong teams.

From the looks of the leaderboard, if not for a 2 hour penalty for a forgotten Sat. phone they would have been second, behind only the mighty Getawaystix and Benoits+Ursula! And Bash was worried she'd be too slow.

Untamed is a nail-biter right now.

Guats (Getawaystix et al) are leading Skandia, then Granite,

then RF in 4th (Bash, Harps and the Jameses) virtually tied with MBR (Tiny, MM, Hillflyer and Nosnhoj) after serving 2 hr penalty for a forgotten sat phone.

ATP/Salomon (Phatties etc) are in 11th, and I think short-coursed, but there are tons of different short courses.
Now comes the Rogaine...

Untamed New England's well underway.

The leaderboard's looking good- RF with Harps, Bash and the Jameses are in second right now!
Guats (Getawaystix etc) , MBR (Tiny et al) and ATP/Salomon (The Cameron Clan with Plebes) are in the top 10.

http://www.untamedne.com/Leaderboard.aspx

C • Yeah Canada! 2

Down to Albion to meet the EstroHammerGirls (Crash and Coach LD) for a good solid ride around everything. LD had a mechanical and we had to remove one cleat, but she can still ride up a storm with only 1 foot clipped in.
Nice cool morning, great company, and the bike's purring like a kitten.

Workout 1 + leg strength

Nice ride down to the rail trail and up to Tottenham with Coach LD, as my big bike's still in the shop- Wayne's giving it the Full Monty.

Five Finger run to work- soft sand's easier on my knee.
Got to find a detour though- there's no swim for Bulletdog on this route.

Found a route that gives Bulletdog a swim, but it's more riding on subdivision roads and I need to cross the golf course construction. Still not ideal.

Commute with Bulletdog.
Looks like they bulldozed the trail to widen it in sections, but now it's really soft sand. I had to walk up one of the hills! Also lost the last 500M of trail due to construction on a #$@% golf course, so now I need to leash the hound and cross over and go along the side of the highway for a short bit, rather than XC trail to the underpass. Grrr-I knew the day would come.
Still better than driving though.

Hiked with my bro on the Nakasendo trail in Japan.
This was the old highway between Tokyo and Kyoto. We just did a small section of it on 1 day, between 2 historical villages. We were thrilled to escape the 36 degrees and 100% humidity of Kyoto- it was only in the high 20s here.

The hiking's not exactly bushwhacking, but the trail's very lush and tropical.





Parts of it have the original stone "paving"


We passed some really cool little villages, that haven't changed much since the Edo period (1700s)


Some pretty cool bamboo forest too.


My knee's still feeling it, after a week of tromping around on pavement, but nothing too debilitating.

We had to get good at reading Kanji symbols on signposts


Trekking snacks were a little different than race food we eat here:


These guys were surprisingly good, grilled in sweet shoyu sauce:

From Japan 2010

and the post-hiking meal wasn't too bad either:

From Japan 2010

Really roughing it as far as accommodation goes too




Bro was worried about the toilet facilities. There were washrooms every 2 km or so, including ones equipped with built-in butt-shower. Check out the control panel!
This one surprised Bro so much he felt it should at least buy him dinner afterwards. Fortuitously he found how to turn the power down from firehose level the next time.


Pretty cool village!




The next AM we left after breakfast at 9AM, and made it to Narita airport after a taxi and 4 trains, and were home by 9PM. (thanks to crossing the date line).

C • Wow! 12