Training Log Archive: Bash

Re nutrition and longevity: The inventor of the Big Mac died this week. He was 98.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/30/...

Much as I don't like the treadmill, I can't cheat when I do speed work on it - unless I want to fix a hole in the drywall. Today's podcast was RadioLab discussing the meat allergy you can get from a Lone Star Tick bite. Oh, that would be sad (but good for the environment).

Caron was not merciful in tonight's Boot Camp. No resting! Ever! It's amazing that she's still doing the exercises with us, given that she's been teaching a variety of classes 6 or 7 days a week ever since her new fitness studio opened in late September.

I've had an easy month since the Javelina 100 with the exception of Raid The Hammer, but it's time to start training for Transgrancanaria in 12 weeks. The good news is that I gain weight when I train less so now I'm getting a harder workout when I run. Yay...?

AdventureDog and I ran around Palgrave East. There were some slimy boardwalks after last night's rain so I got to test the advertised low-slip tread of the Speedcross Pros. It would have been better to have a different shoe on each foot to compare but they seemed really solid.

We met one polite mountain biker and followed in the footsteps of dozens of horses with loose bowels. We also met a man with a strong accent who valiantly tried to warn me - several times - about a Purple Pine just ahead. I finally realized it was a porcupine, thanked him and took a different trail.

AdventureDog is not tired.

Injury prevention-oriented class with 'Bent and the C3 gang

Happy Birthday, 'Bent!

BazingaDog doesn't know it yet but there are just a few more hours of boredom to go. Tomorrow is the 12-week anniversary of his knee surgery so he will finally be allowed to run again. Best of all, his leg doesn't hurt anymore.

Another nice family hike with the pooches. I've rested long enough to feel eager to train again - a good sign!

Hiked with 'Bent and the pups.

Slush run around Palgrave West with AdventureDog before kicking off 'Bent's Birthday Weekend by letting him cook one of my favourite dinners.

For anyone who used to use Picasa and wasn't satisfied with the automatic "upgrade" to Google Photos, SmugMug now makes it easy to import photos from Google Photos. I'm currently importing all the photos I'd ever posted on Attackpoint before last March when I made the switch - over 6,000 of them. I can't imagine that I'll ever change the links though - maybe for my major race reports.

'Bent joined me in tonight's class. Caron took it easy on him.

The forecast is calling for rain so if I wanted to enjoy the snow that fell overnight, I had to get out this morning. It wasn't pretty - the skiing, that is. Palgrave West forest, on the other hand, was *really* pretty. There was just enough snow to ski but not enough snow to ski back on the same track. It was slow going with waxless rock skis on sticky, wet snow - and it was wonderful. I met Crash Caylor skiing with her pooches Sadie and Skye, so we skied together and chatted for awhile.

Time includes some trail clearing. There were a few days with gusty winds this fall and if we don't clear the fallen branches now, they'll freeze to the ground and grab our skis in mid-winter.

Only one more week of R&R before I start training for real again. In the meantime, BazingaDog and I had a great hike in the forest before the snow started coming down. He is less than a week away from getting his License To Run after several months of limping followed by 12 weeks of post-surgical recovery. He is soooo ready.

Boot camp before grocery shopping. I guess that's called a "brick".

New C3 injury prevention class in Caledon East after a fruitful trip to Salomon Toronto.

BazingaDog and I hiked in the snow today! We didn't get enough to ski but it's great to see that Mother Nature still remembers how to make winter weather.

Until early afternoon, it looked like I might have to drive back to Brantford to help Mom but the situation improved with more effective pain control. Word of advice: never tear your bicep!

Hamilton Theatre Inc. in Hamilton, Ontario (home of Raid The Hammer) received dozens of angry tweets over the weekend.
http://www.metronews.ca/news/canada/2016/11/20/tru...

Stars O Cup Kick-Off - Shades Mills, Cambridge

After weeks of near-summer weather, we got lots of rain today. Because I'd packed in a hurry yesterday when I went to Mom's place, I hadn't brought all the right gear. I ran in a good rain jacket that I would hate to tear, which influenced my route choices, i.e. more trail running than bushwhacking. The O Cup box used dog bone controls, which allowed a longer course in a smaller park - great strategy and quite a challenge. There was a good crowd of participants and a wide range of finish times.

Afterward, Funderstorm suggested that a group of us go to The Old Marina for a hearty mid-afternoon lunch and beer. It was delicious! It was great to catch up with various people and enjoy the view and cozy atmosphere. I knew what it was going to feel like to run on a full stomach in the evening race (and I was right!) but I decided it was worth it. This is one of the cool things about the Stars offering two races in a day; it gives orienteers a chance to hang out in clean clothes indoors. Nice!

Update: In the excitement of the race, I interpreted double control 1/4 as the start of the box and ran almost right past 2/3 without paying any attention to it. So I kickstarted my season with a mispunch! Boo, I will try not to make it a habit.

(I don't know either of my race times and I didn't start/stop my Ambit at the exact times. Will fix later.)

Starry Nights O Cup - Riverside Park

I love night O! It was a chilly evening with some rain and a few snowflakes before we started. As always, the weather wasn't an issue once we got going. It was an interesting course design with two O Cup boxes and different types of terrain and navigation. The ground was wet from all the rain today, which added to the adventure. I'm going to need to re-think my system of lights and glasses; it wasn't always easy to see the map because my vision is getting worse. I think I was 2nd woman behind Val, maybe in the top 4 or 5. She is tough to beat!

Thank you to the Stars for another terrific O Cup double header to kick off the season. It's a lot of extra work but we sure appreciate it.

Spectacular shorts weather yet again, although it really is time to get some snow to ski on. My plans for the day changed abruptly when Mom tore her right bicep and I had to go to Brantford. Doing everything one-handed is tough and unfortunately, she is right-handed.

Hard Core Live with Caron

C3 Yoga class. Nice to see new class member Nick de St. Croix.

At 10 weeks post-surgery, we're allowing BazingaDog to start using stairs again. That means we get to move from the main floor guest room back upstairs to our bedroom - yay. (B-Dog would cry all night if he had to stay downstairs while we were upstairs.) Wrestling a king mattress up a too-narrow staircase with 'Bent took 20 minutes and turned out to be just as tough as boot camp with a much greater chance of injury. So I'm not counting it as a rest day!

Here's a document listing "False, Misleading, Clickbait-y and/or Satirical News Sources". It's not comprehensive but it's pretty good - like Snopes for news sources.
http://d279m997dpfwgl.cloudfront.net/wp/2016/11/Re...

I've also been looking at different media bias rating sites, trying to decide on a favourite place to help me put news articles in context. If you haven't seen them, these sites rate different news sources on left vs. right wing bias and sometimes also on their tendency to publish false information. If anyone has a favourite media bias rating site, please share. I'll post here when I've reviewed them more.

It used to be that critical reading was the key skill we needed but with the proliferation of fake, biased and/or non-fact-checked "news", we need to beef up the toolkit.

New C3 Injury Prevention class - Similar to last year's boot camp with some foam rolling at the end. I was still feeling Raid The Hammer in my legs but it was good.

Event: Raid The Hammer
 

I wanted to do Raid The Hammer even though I've been running out of energy quickly since running the Javelina 100 in the heat two weeks ago. Dee and Audrey have been injured and sick respectively so we formed a team with the plan to just have fun. At least, that's what I thought! As always, these strong ladies are still in great shape even when they're not 100% so it was a very tough day for me physically. It was still lots of fun to explore the woods together on a beautiful day with terrific maps.

Dee and Aud are both excellent teammates so I got lots of towing and pushing in places where the terrain allowed. It was *way* more than my body was ready for. There were a few big climbs when I felt so weak that I couldn't pull myself up and thought I might topple over backwards off the cliff. There was plenty of ankle busting terrain so I was protective of the ankle I've twisted twice in the past four weeks; it held up. My brain got fuzzy with the physical effort but it was an OK nav race for me - neither great nor terrible.

It was interesting to see areas where I'd never been before. The finish line was in Stoney Creek and somehow I'd never been on the Bruce Trail on that side of Hamilton. There are some pretty views and gorgeous homes.

There were several different challenges that helped us reach the promised 50 controls for the club's 50th anniversary. We had two Matrix sections, a long-ish Walk the Line and three sections where we had to watch for flagging tape at "potential control" locations, then report to volunteers which controls we had seen. Sometimes I wished the WTL or potential controls had been placed in trickier places since we noticed teams accidentally missing some of those sections and saving time but that's a minor niggle. It was a fun course, tremendously hard work and a fantastic day for running in the woods!

The final map was mostly an aerial photo that I didn't wrap my head around immediately, which led to our biggest bobble of the day enroute to the dog park. We ran hard to the finish beside the school track - except it wasn't there. We spent several minutes in that area trying to find it tucked behind a wall or hill before we ran around the school and 'Bent directed us to the place it had been moved to - 4 minutes lost, according to GPS.

Fun day, completely zonked! One bruised kneecap and one big scrape but otherwise I seem to have survived. Thank you to all the DontGetLost staff and volunteers who work so hard on these events. It was a great day!

Tonight was the annual banquet for the C3 triathlon club, to which we belong since it's local and we enjoy overlapping activities and interests. I was very surprised and honoured to receive the C3 Female Runner of the Year award. They obviously decided to reward distance over speed this year! Although I feel quite undeserving, given that most club members could kick my butt in a 10K road run, I'm impressed at the way they have embraced 'Bent and me and our crazy adventure sports over the past decade.

The keynote speakers were the Mallory family, whom many of us know from adventure racing. They have a book now, "The Family that Conquered Everest".

Now to enjoy some down time from quality training until Dec. 1! (Oh, except for Raid The Hammer tomorrow.)

AdventureDog and I went for a run around Palgrave West at sunset. It was my first run since Javelina two weeks ago. Although I felt OK racing in the crazy desert heat, I've been tiring quickly since I got back. That's probably not too unusual after running 100K, and November is a good time to take a break anyway. I cranked my ankle pretty hard at the 5K mark of the race then kept going for 95 more kms so that's not good either. My next ultra is late February and I'm not planning to get back to regular running until Dec. 1.

All that aside, I needed to test my legs and orienteering shoes before Raiding The Hammer with Dee and Audrey on Sunday. We are all protesting that we aren't in racing form, and I'm very serious about that so I hope I won't hold them back too much. It sounds like a fun race course with great weather in the forecast!

Substitute instructor Adele decided to crank things up a notch.

Tough class! Hope I don't still have sore muscles for Raid The Hammer but I might because we did some really different stuff.

Ugh, couldn't sleep after watching Trump's acceptance speech.

Dee, Mrs. Gally and I had a fun, chatty ride around the leaf-covered trails of Albion Hills. Spectacular day, great company! My legs are still tired from Javelina but I didn't feel as exhausted as I did on Sunday so things are moving in the right direction.

Class

Class with Caron

Bolton Fall 50 - Coach LD's annual birthday celebration!

We couldn't have asked for a more spectacular autumn day. The forests are still full of yellow maples and the sun shone all day. We started by biking from the Huets' place in Caledon East to BGY's place. Most of this was on Centreville Creek Road, which has lots of hills. It didn't take long for me to feel last weekend's 100K in my legs!

Mrs. BGY spoiled us with fresh, homemade wontons with different fillings. I'd only been biking for 42 minutes and didn't deserve a treat yet but that sure didn't stop me! Then the BGYs led us on a hike around the trails on the beautiful block of land they share with their neighbours.

The group rode past our place on the way to Crash's house, where homemade date squares were served. By that time, our sick dogs had been alone too long so I dropped off while the others continued to Albion Hills for some mountain bike orienteering.

We finished the day with a potluck birthday feast at the Huets, topped off by cake with candles, ice cream and apple crisp.

Happy Birthday, Coach LD! :)

22 Push-up Challenge, Day 2

Rodney Yee's Power Yoga for Flexibility - I can still feel last weekend in my muscles and joints.

22 Push-up Challenge, Day 1 - in honour of Veterans with PTSD who commit suicide. I'm not nominating other people; I think most people with any interest have done this by now. I am making a donation to the Wounded Warriors Service Dog program instead.

First time trying aerial yoga, which Caron offers at her new fitness studio. Apparently, it's the only place that offers aerial yoga between Toronto and Barrie. It's so different! I thought I was picking it up quickly when we used the hammocks to enhance regular yoga poses and stretches but then we got into the upside down moves and I got all uncoordinated! I'm sure it will improve with practice although 'Bent aced that stuff from the beginning - unlike the easier poses. ;)
<http://detroit.carpediem.cd/data/afisha/o/40/97/40...>

Posted Javelina 100 race report from last weekend
http://ar.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_920/per...