Training Log Archive: Bash

Foothab, balance, mountain legs and squats.

'Bent and I got to the Outdoor Adventure Show in the rain, found a parking space this time, and saw a bunch of familiar faces at booths and in the crowd as we collected maps, chocolate and trip ideas. Then we hunkered down at home as the high winds roared in with blizzard conditions that closed a number of Ontario roads. It's going to be messy in the forest with fallen trees and branches. It sounds like the wind will be strong enough that we can't go in there tomorrow either.

O Cup #5 UKR Gators chapter
Heart Lake Conservation Area, Brampton

Spectacular, sunny day for what will probably be my final O Cup race of this season. The UKR Gators chapter hosted us at Heart Lake - a fun, varied park where I haven't orienteered since 2006. (It was the venue for the inaugural Caledon Navigators event, Thomass Caledon.)

Klepperton, DD11 and Harps had put together a fun course - intentionally longer than usual - with 11 mandatory, numbered controls and 7 "dog bones". The dog bones were pairs of controls that had to be visited in sequence (in either direction) with no other controls in between. We could skip a number of dog bones equal to our handicap, which meant I only needed to visit two dog bones. They could be done at any time as we worked our way around the rest of the course. I liked that the dog bone controls and lines were marked in blue so they stood out from the mandatory part of the course.

The dog bones didn't add enough distance to achieve the target O Cup handicap distance ratios so it would have been a great race for speedy zero handicappers (men aged 21-34) but I'm not sure any of them were there. Sometimes races are biased *against* zero handicappers so it usually averages out over the season.



The trails were icy enough that I wished I'd worn my Kahtoolas instead of just spiked shoes. (DD11, I should have made that call when you mentioned conditions were slipperier today than they had been.) I ran along the snowy edges and took things more slowly when it got dicey. Off-trail, there was enough snow to slow us down so the trails were still a better bet. I did a paved road run through a subdivision between #5 and #6 for a change of pace. It allowed me to pick up dog bone B-A on the way. My other dog bone was H-G on the way to #1.



I'm not sure of my result - probably 5th-10th overall, 1st woman. It was a hard effort - a welcome change from my moderate ultrarun training. I find it hard to push that hard when I'm just running so yay for orienteering!

Doug had cooked up some delicious chili with fresh bread and brown rice. Such a treat to get a hot lunch before heading out. It was great to chat with friends afterward. As recommended by DD11, I went to the Butter and Cup cafe for a latte. I *need* to be familiar with the best cafes in Caledon so this was important research. Then, because I'd bought a ticket to the Outdoor Adventure Show online, I drove down to the International Centre but after driving around for a frustrating 15 minutes, I couldn't find a parking spot so I left. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow morning if the predicted 100 kph winds haven't started yet.

Huge thanks to Klepperton, DD11, Harps and Doug for a terrific race. I won't be doing anything too taxing for the rest of the day. :)

In the school gym we used as our race HQ, there was a post-race survey on the wall. Great stuff. ;)

Snowshoe tour out the back door to the "New Trails" in Palgrave West with 'Bent and the pooches. It's neither "New" (we first explored it more than 15 years ago) nor "Trails" (mostly bushwhacking). The trees are younger and healthier than some other parts of Palgrave West. With all the dying ash trees along our regular trails, we wanted to revisit this area since it would be safer on a windy day. We went through some sections of forest we had never seen before, which is really cool after living on this block of land for 20+ years. I probably ran 1.5 km but we mostly hiked through snow with a light crust from Wednesday night's freezing rain. Dog stops are included.

Hard Core Live with Caron. 'Bent kindly joined me.

C3 Yoga with 'Bent making faces on the next mat over.

I had more training plans but our construction project problems took up most of the day. :(

It's been so nice to be able to ski out the door on good snow lately! The weather radar showed freezing rain on its way with rain behind it so I went for a ski around Palgrave West before the conditions changed. There was some fast skiing in 'Bent's commute tracks and some trail breaking in fluffy snow on the south side. Fun skiing!

The mood of the forest was completely different from yesterday - grey, dreary and misty like a Vancouver forest in winter. I finished half an hour after sunset, just as it was starting to feel spooky.

Legs, feet, abductors, etc.

I still haven't figured out all my training goals for 2019 but one of them is to log something every day. 50 days in, and there are no blank days so far! Until mid-January, my goal was to log some strength, mobility or yoga every day but my good intentions were foiled when I totally forgot on the eve of the Dontgetlost Snowshoe Raid.

Today was a minor triumph. Many days last year were marred with bad news and/or stress from various sources, and it crushed my motivation to train. Today was like old times - and not in a good way. After the final straw - a depressing 45-minute phone call with the contractor managing our bungled deck project - there's no question that last fall I would have given up and poured a glass of wine. But I reluctantly dragged my butt out the door just before dark, and I'm proud of myself.

A sunset snowshoe "run" around Palgrave West that was mostly *not* running due to steep hills and gnarly bushwhacking. I ran flats and downhills that weren't covered in tangled thorns or fallen logs. AdventureDog was in Extreme-Alert-For-Wildlife mode and I had to keep calling him back, which isn't typical. He frightened a flock of wild turkeys roosting in some dead trees, and when they took off all aflutter, I heard branches crack above me - yikes! I ran but nothing big fell down.

I was walking in 'Bent's snowshoe tracks from yesterday because I wondered if his Garmin had over-estimated the elevation gain. He recorded 320 m of climb in 5.66 km, which seems like a lot for Caledon. Turns out my Ambit data wasn't as different as I'd expected. I expect Garmin distance to be a little longer on twisty routes because they use a different algorithm to identify errors. I just looked back and remembered that he turned off his watch accidentally for a few hundred meters and estimated what he had missed, so there really isn't much difference.

Beautiful evening!

'Bent, the pooches and I went for a Family Day ski around Palgrave West. Since BazingaDog can't be trusted off-leash, 'Bent was skijoring behind him. This is how they commute to the dental office at this time of year so they are an experienced team.

AdventureDog did his part by taunting BazingaDog and setting the pace. I chased after them all and managed to get some photos and video when B-Dog finally got tired and slowed down. It was another bluebird winter day. What a nice long weekend!

I hated to do this instead of playing outdoors some more but I'm only 8 weeks away from my first ultra in a year. I figured the treadmill would keep my injured ankle as happy as possible.