Training Log Archive: Bash

Reporting from Stockholm... Beautiful place, even if I cannot figure out this computer keyboard! We spent a few hours walking around and got most of our necessary errands done (buying map, camp fuel, lighters, more food, etc. for our backpacking trip), so now we can just be tourists. Got caught in a heavy rainstorm, so I finally did some running this week! So far, the food has been excellent. Bent had herring for dinner!

This week flew by! Wrote a magazine article, cleaned up for house/dog sitter, caught up on on snail mail like bills and greeting cards, cleaned all the mucky gear from RockstAR - oh, and packed and shopped and packed some more. My backpack looks a little too full, so I foresee more unpacking and packing over the next few hours.

'Bent and I are off to Sweden later today! I spent one afternoon there in my university days, but otherwise it's our first trip. We'll spend this weekend in Stockholm, then we're taking an 18-hr train ride (my first-ever sleeper car!) to Abisko in Lapland, 200 km north of the Arctic Circle. Then we're backpacking for a week on the Kungsleden trail with the possibility of climbing Kebnekaise, Sweden's highest mountain, if the weather is good. (From what I can see online, the weather is seldom good.) Then we're spending a few days in Björkliden, a nearby ski resort where we can kayak on Lake Torneträsk or drive over to Norway to see a real live fjord.

Then we're doing the 2-day, 50-km Björkliden Arctic Mountain Marathon.

http://www.bamm.nu/index.php?lang=en&page=start

Hmm.... we'll be competing against Swedes in an orienteering event in Sweden. Yeah, good luck with that! My only goal is to not DNF, and seriously, I'm not at all confident that we'll achieve it! The format is about 25 km (as the crow flies) per day of navigation to 6 or 7 controls spread throughout the mountains. There's a cut-off time to reach a designated group campsite, and teams who arrive late are dropped to the recreational category for the next day. (Gulp.) There's a long list of mandatory gear including tent, sleeping bags, stove, etc. I think we'll be trekking, but apparently the Swedes will be running!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFEvgCb3V34

And then we return to Stockholm for my birthday dinner, then home to our pooches. I'm not sure how much Internet we'll find in Lapland, so I'll wish you all a fun first half of August, and we'll check in when/if we can. Take care!

Woo hoo - the forecast for our arrival day in Stockholm has just been upgraded from "Heavy Rain Shower" to "Light Rain Shower". It also seems to rain every day in the part of Lapland we're heading to, which is 200 km north of the Arctic Circle. I'm going to feel right at home after spending July in Ontario!

RockstAR adventure race, Bark Lake

When STORM Racing and Hark Events (ESAR, Trek or Treat) introduced this creative race format in 2008, the response was underwhelming - only 67 racers showed up for a terrific event. Luckily the organizers persevered, and the event sold out this year with close to 300 racers. Both a 4-hr and 8-hr version were offered this time, making the race more accessible to novices.

The race has two parts - a marked mountain bike course and a rogaine-style navigation section where teams can use any combination of canoe or foot travel to reach checkpoints. This requires more careful planning than a standard rogaine because racers don't know how much time they will have for the navigation section after they finish mountain biking, and the option of different modes of travel adds an extra variable. I love this type of challenge! 'Bent and I picked up our maps shortly after 8 a.m.



Bonus points right off the top... Each racer received his/her own copy of the detailed close-up maps so that everyone could participate in the nav. The main race map was based on a 1:50,000 topo map, yet thankfully there were no CPs described as "junction of two ATV trails not shown". CPs were placed in locations that were supported by the map, and control descriptions were sufficiently specific. We just had to choose a good route to get ourselves to the right area, then we knew exactly what to look for. No needles in haystacks.

Last year most of the top teams portaged north from Bark Lake to Koshlong Lake, then paddled 4+ km to YMCA Camp Wanakita to pick up some high-value CPs on the camp trail system. I had expected to do that again, but when I analyzed the points available on different sections of the race course vs. our time estimates for getting those points, I saw that it made no sense to go to Wanakita. It took me awhile to accept this conclusion because 'Bent and I were really looking forward to canoeing and portaging - two of our speedier AR disciplines - but the course favoured good runners this year - and that ain't us.

With 20/20 hindsight, it would have made things more interesting if about 150 more points had been assigned to the Camp Wanakita section to make it a viable option, thus messing with our minds a little more. (We experienced the same situation when most teams skipped the Matrix in this year's Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Snowshoe Raid.) Although the points assigned were similar to last year, the addition of the 4-hr race meant that there were more points near Bark Lake, which made it tempting to never leave. Having said that, with thunderstorms in the forecast, it was just as well that the optimum route choices involved less paddling. In addition to the lightning risk, teams worried about being forced ashore in some remote location during a storm and losing valuable race time. That alone might have tipped the balance toward staying closer to Bark Lake.

We devised a plan to hit most of the CPs in the Bark Lake area, then got bussed to the starting line.



The marked bike course was awesome fun! The first half of the ride is on an ATV trail. It was wet, but because it was sandy and rocky, it was fast. 'Bent and I loved this part of the course and kept pace with the top teams even though I had two filthy swims in puddles after my front wheel got stuck in the mud. It wasn't just me - Dog Runner had such an impressive yard sale on a rocky downhill that I needed to hear her speak before it felt right to ride on. (She was totally fine, even though it hurt my knees to watch.)

Things changed when we hit the road where fitness counts more. I think we may have been the first coed team to finish the technical riding section, but 4 coed teams passed us on the road section. Gack - would it help if I spent more time on the trainer? I don't like road riding enough to do it as training! 'Bent went through a bad spell around this point, suffering from a headache and stomach troubles that improved throughout the day.

Back at the Hub at Bark Lake after about 80 minutes, we dropped our bikes and headed out on foot toward the southwest. Then we crossed the road and moved west to east, picking up CPs 50, 42, 122 and 150. Compared with last year, we did a lot more bushwhacking, and the deer flies and mosquitoes made sure we kept our pace up.



There were some major mud puddles on the trails after all the rain, and it actually felt good to cool off our legs. In a couple of places, we followed snowmobile trails that led across narrow bodies of water to get to the other side. I reminded 'Bent that swimming was against the rules, so if the water got over our heads, we should just keep walking. ;-) Fortunately, it never came to that.



Note the mud on my face from my big bike splashdown.



After collecting CPs on the southeast and east side of Bark Lake, we had reached CP80 with the plan to return to the Hub. Then I had the bright idea to continue the rest of the way around Bark Lake, picking up several CPs on the way. The one weakness in our plan was the absence of a trail around the southwest corner of the lake. Since there is a trail running along or near the lakeshore everywhere else around Bark Lake, we knew there must be a good reason for this "missing link".

We picked up CP20, CP100 and CP40, then headed south to finish our circumnavigation. There is a rule in RockstAR that I don't like because of its impact on race strategy - a requirement to check in at the Bark Lake Hub between 4 and 7 p.m. even though the race doesn't end until 8 p.m. Interestingly, teams who miss this 7 p.m. safety cut-off are disqualified immediately, whereas teams arriving late at the end of the race lose 10 pts/min for 30 minutes before being disqualified. So it's a serious rule with major implications! Anyway... we realized we were at risk of missing the 7 p.m. cut-off. Around the same time, we realized why the camp hadn't built a trail all the way around Bark Lake. Swamp, more swamp and a little bit of wetland... thick shrubs, surprise chest-deep dunkings in brown water between little mounds of bouncy ground. We had to do this part as a sprint - and by now, the skies had opened, and the rain was getting heavier. Suddenly, it was clear why people don't always understand or appreciate my hobbies.

I'd almost written off our chances when we finally reached the dam at the south end of the lake. Back on a good ATV trail, we hooked up a tow rope, and 'Bent hauled me back to the Hub without my feet touching the ground. I think I just pedalled in the air like the Road Runner before he plunges off a cliff. We made it with almost 10 minutes to spare. Phew!!

As the rain pelted down, we hopped in our canoe for our only paddle of the day, taking a short trip around the swamp behind the dining hall to pick up two CPs. Then 'Bent put on his snorkelling gear to retrieve three marked CDs at depths of 8', 10' and 12'. These counted as three CPs - a fun idea!



Standing in my soaking wet clothes waiting for him in the pouring rain (only one teammate could dive), I got chilled. He found the disks quickly enough that we had just under 40 minutes left, so we went back out to pick up two more CPs on foot. (I was sooo ready for a hot shower, but we couldn't stop. You never know how you're doing compared to other teams in this race format, so you have to assume that every point counts.) With just over 10 minutes to spare, we crossed the finish line to the sound of great rock tunes. A nice thing about rogaine-style events is that everyone finishes around the same time, so the finish line was a lively place. Great to see volunteers PhattyJR, Mique, Joel and Luis from Breathe Mag, and the other racers.

Post-race dinner hit the spot and warmed us up - two nice pastas, veggies, garlic bread, salad bar in a canoe, and a make-your-own sundae bar - yum! Results were delayed while organizers and volunteers worked for a couple of hours to track down a lost team. They'd checked in between 4-7 p.m., then headed for CP150, a CP that was a fair distance away and required some skill to navigate back from. Fortunately, they were located and retrieved, and appeared in the dining hall with smiles. Great search & rescue by the volunteers and organizers.

Leading up to the race, there had been some trash talking back and forth with our friendly rivals, Team Beowulf. Last year the Tree Huggers edged them out for the Coed title at RockstAR, but this year the pendulum swung in the other direction, so it'll be best 2 out of 3 next year. Beowulf finished 1st overall (woo hoo!!) of 47 teams with 1400 pts, and we were 2nd overall with 1280 pts. A male team was 3rd overall with 1150 pts. So we were happy even though we didn't get the very cool RockstAR medals. Our friends on the Milton Basement Racers rounded out the Coed Team of Two podium in 3rd place.

Another excellent event by STORM and Mrs. & Mrs, Flatfoot - we're already looking forward to next year!

Easy run around the Palgrave West trails. The temperature was cool and beautiful, but it was super-humid, so it felt hot anyway.

Well, I said I wasn't going to do this, but apparently I lied... I lugged my trainer upstairs to watch part of le Tour on the nicer TV. So far, very little mud has fallen off the bike onto the living room carpet. (This was my outdoor bike until 10 days ago.) I don't think Mom would approve.

Hard Core DVD - it's been a long time since Caron has given me a tummy ache, but it's time to get back into it. Some of the other stuff I've been doing must be hitting those muscles because it wasn't as insanely difficult as it sometimes feels after a lapse. Maybe the paddling is helping. I meant to do my leg strength routine too, but the day got away from me.

Rode mostly tight & twisty single track in Palgrave West - still getting used to my Specialized again, since it doesn't climb quite like my Gary Fisher (but makes up for it in other ways). Trails are in excellent shape! Today's ride was penance for watching le Tour yesterday after we got home from up north, even though we hadn't done the requisite hour of training. Luckily, today is a Tour rest day, so now I'm all caught up!

Awhile ago, Spaff mentioned on his log that he knew a bear had been in the area because of the strong BO smell. I filed that away for future reference, and on today's ride, I got a jolt! Now... I've been adventure racing with boys for 7 years, so I'm no stranger to major BO. But the blast that hit my nose today was several orders of magnitude beyond what you'd get from any team of four after a long bushwhack on a 30C day. I stopped about 30 meters down the trail to look back. There was no noise, and I didn't see any telltale black shapes in the bushes or high in a tree. So I don't know for sure... but I've never smelled anything like that in nature before, and I'm fairly certain I was the only person on the trails, since the parking lot was empty. For those who use these trails, it was on the single track in Palgrave East within 100 meters south of the Duffy's Lane Bruce Trail entrance.

Continuing in an olfactory vein, the milkweed flowers smelled fantastic today. I've never noticed it before. If I were a Monarch butterfly, I'd definitely figure it was worth the flight from Mexico to get to Palgrave.

It took awhile to get the full story, now that Crash is no longer on AP (sniffle!) So here's a belated, but still sincere and HUGE congratulations to Crash for finishing 2nd by one short minute in the Northeastern Xterra Cup race last week. She qualified for one of two available slots in the Xterra World Champs in Hawaii this fall. Exciting! Crash, you are awesome!!

Those who have been running pseudo-barefoot with Vibram Five Fingers will be interested to know that Crash did the run portion of the Xterra in her FFs. She finds the FFs better for her back than regular shoes. This was an 11 km steep, muddy, rough trail run on a ski hill.

Rumour has it that further details may appear here at some point:
http://www.sarahcaylor.blogspot.com/

I touched my eye tonight, and it began to burn so badly that I put it under the faucet a few times over the next 10 minutes. It felt like someone had thrown acid on it. Then I tried eye drops, then I tried keeping it closed for awhile until it finally settled down. Yikes. I was thinking that it must be the chipotle peppers in the chutney we had for dinner, but they didn't taste that strong, and I didn't stick my finger in the chutney. Much later, it hit me. This afternoon I'd been cleaning out some old outdoor gear and found a little pepper spray can that had burst. I'd washed my hands after tossing it, but a drop of the spray must have stayed under that fingernail. WOW, I have sympathy for the poor bears now.

'Bent and I went for a paddle from my brother's cottage on Lake Muskoka.

Just learned that this year's Laurentian Rogaine will only have an 8 hr option. Boo, we'll have to come up with a different plan.

Yikes! People have different views on Michael Jackson, but this video of the Pepsi commercial accident shows what a truly traumatic experience it must have been. Anyone would need pain killers and cosmetic surgery after an incident like this, but obviously things got out of hand.
http://www.usmagazine.com/news/video-michael-jacks...

Easy run around Palgrave West on a day when I didn't feel like going, but was eventually glad I did. (Mostly because I need to train for an hour in order to be permitted to watch any of today's Tour stage!) I tiptoed around two patches of poison ivy and ran down Hawk Hill through weeds that were taller than I was. I was so itchy by the time I got home that I had to jump straight into the shower - I guess that was the pollen, seeds and bugs from the weeds.

While watching le Tour

Another short trek with hiking boots and a heavy backpack - went up and down the big hill at the back of our property.

'Bent and I met up with Coach LD (at last! it's been too long!) for a ride around Albion. The trails have been really wet this year, but today they were darned near perfect. Chico and volunteers have done a lot of work, and there have been some nice re-routes.

On the Sugar Shack single track, there is a short, steep, rooty climb with a tree on the left. I gave it my best shot, but my semi-slick tires just wouldn't bite, and I tipped toward the downhill side. I grabbed at the tree but couldn't hold it, and since there was a big depression beside the trail, I went down a long way, doing a reverse swan dive with my bike, landing on the pointy bit at the back of my helmet. It was a mild shock (perhaps a major one for 'Bent, who watched me do it), but it looks like I may get away with a slightly stiff neck - no blood, and if I got any new bruises, it would be impossible to distinguish them from all my old bruises. (I have stoopid hobbies!)

'Bent and Coach LD were riding well as always. I need to find at least one training partner who is slower than me. I spend 100% of my group training time chasing fast people!

First run with Slowrunner since her 146 km trail race last weekend, so I was expecting an easy day. WRONG. She, Homey, Tony and I did the hardest Crossfit run yet! We ran the HVT from the Wellness Centre to the Big Log, then returned to the newly christened Homey Shite Hill (big hill west of Duffy's Lane). We ran up the hill, then did 20 squats, 12 girlie push-ups (the others did 15 real ones) and 20 bicycles. Then halfway down the steep hill, we stopped to do 20 dips on a step, then back to the bottom. (The time and distance for this part is logged separately.) Four reps of hill climbs, then instead of coming down the 4th time, we headed back toward the Wellness Centre and repeated the strength exercises halfway up the last big hill. Great workout on a sunny day with lots of laughs. (I *think* they were laughing with me, not at me! :-) ) At the end, Slowrunner treated us to yummy popsicles that we consumed outside the Wellness Centre while chatting.

Strength/hills portion of the run. Homey Shite Hill is a 250 m return trip from bottom to top to bottom.

Well #@*$! Who would have guessed?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/that-soothing-...

Definitely could be useful for athletes...

Out with ThunderDog for another trek where I was carrying 20+ kg - this time testing a different backpack that spread the load better for this weight. (Not that I know what weight I'll be carrying on our backpacking trip yet, but I like to read so my pack is never light.) I'd been wavering on wearing hiking boots, but was glad I had them on when I just missed a seriously turned ankle on the front step. (I would definitely have needed to come up with a better story!) One time I was hiking with a woman who dislocated her ankle and broke a bone after her backpack tipped her to the downhill side while traversing a steep slope. If that absolutely has to happen to me some day, then I want the same scenic helicopter evacuation ride she had - an ambulance on our front patio just wouldn't cut it. Fortunately, the hiking boot stopped my ankle in time and reminded me that you have to be more careful when you have a load on your back.

How Urthbuoy got started...

Started the day with a big WOO HOO as we refreshed the browser a few more times and finally "saw" ATP/Salomon cross the finish line of the Untamed New England adventure race with a commanding lead over the other 43 teams. Leanimal, PhattyJR, STORM and Scott... you guys rock!! And YAHOO, the Milton Basement Racers shot up the standings and also finished with the top teams, which included Robyn Benincasa's Merrell/Zanfel. Based on the YouTube video of Tiny telling stories after the race, it appears that they had fun and finished with a surprising amount of energy and good humour. Canadians rule!! We're so proud of all our friends who competed in this very tough race, but especially thrilled for ATP/Salomon who proved they are one of the best teams in North America and totally deserve their free entry into the World Champs in Portugal. Congrats and hugs to you all!

Since we couldn't congratulate ATP/Salomon directly, we did the next best thing and called Phatty to whoop for joy. It was a gorgeous day but not too hot, so the three of us decided to go biking. 'Bent and I started in Palgrave, and we met Phatty at Humber Station Rd then continued on rail trail to Inglewood at a quick pace. I did my best to keep up and draft in the headwind, but it was a good workout chasing the boys. After a quick stop at Caledon Hills Cycling, we continued to Belfountain on technical trails + Grange Sideroad. We were nicely mud-covered when we arrived at The Shed Coffee Bar for snacks and iced mocha lattes. After a pleasant break in the sunshine, we headed back by the same route, then we all came back to our place to veg out and watch le Tour. Not much excitement in the Pyrenees - looking forward to the Alps and bummed that we will be away on the day of the final time trial.

Funny - I'd decided to post this link on barefoot and Vibram FF running today, and I see that Travelinga had the same thought!
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/barefoot...

Hot, humid run in Glen Haffy where the hills just keep on going! I won a few King of the Mountains points, but 'Bent was the undisputed champion by the end of the run. We'd planned an even hillier 21K loop around Hockley Valley, but the morning thunderstorms delayed us, and there were more in the forecast, so we thought a figure 8 starting at Coolihan's Sideroad through both sides of Glen Haffy would provide a quick escape route to the car if the lightning started up again. As it turns out, a nice thunderstorm would have been refreshing... it was almost 100% humidity and very, very hot. The good news is that the bugs prefer 'Bent.

It's been a couple of years since 'Bent and I wore our hiking boots, so we decided to turn the dog walk into a backpacking test hike. I loaded 20+ kg into my backpack and tried to remember the correct combination of socks for my boots. Not bad, but the pooches had more fun than we did!

I'm more a fan of good bike racing than of any individual rider, but given all he's done to popularize the sport and raise money for cancer, I'd have been happy to see Lance wear yellow yesterday. However... I have to wonder how the commentators would have described the final attack if it had been made by Armstrong instead of Contador. I suspect it would be something like, "What a brilliant tactician! He knew exactly when to strike! He has stamped his authority on this Tour!" And they are such fans that they would say those things even if he had gone against the team plan, as Contador apparently did. However, I suspect that Lance wouldn't go against the team plan - that's one of those things that comes with maturity. Contador may indeed turn out to be the top Astana rider, and if so, he'll get a more significant time advantage in a different stage. In the meantime, he'll get better support from his teammates if he shows them appropriate respect.

Since today was going to be the hottest day of the week, 'Bent and I headed to Island Lake to check out the canoe we're using to take on Beowulf in RockstAR. I wore my Forerunner for the first time on the water, which added a nice geek element to the day. I felt good - I think the paddle trainer is helping.

Yesterday I almost stopped for ice cream in town, but convinced myself that I should postpone my weekly treat until after today's paddle. There's a Dairy Queen right across the street from Island Lake, and I couldn't wait for my favourite hot fudge shake. Imagine my horror to see the Dairy Queen was GONE - completely eradicated. Nothing but a little pile of gravel and a sign for a building permit application. 'Bent remembered that the DQ in Orangeville had moved, and I managed to control my sobs as I called Directory Assistance to track it down. They could find no evidence of a Dairy Queen in Orangeville. Was I sure I had the right city? Sniffle... Vietnamese food was a small consolation, but the Vietnamese aren't big on chocolate.

In case you're not following Untamed New England, Team ATP/Salomon (Leanimal, STORM, PhattyJR and ScottyP) have been leading since the wee hours this morning. It's Day 2 of a 3-day race, and the top two teams earn places in the AR World Champs. Woo hoo!!!
http://www.untamedne.com/Live/Race/default.aspx

ATP/Salomon are a couple of places ahead of Team Merrell/Zanfel, captained by AR star Robyn Benincasa. We're also cheering for friends on a number other Canadian teams including Milton Basement Racers, Breathe Magazine, Axis Gear and Had No Plans. You can send Trail Mail to the racers so they know you're cheering for them.

While watching le Tour

Drove to the north end of Albion to run the single track. The only plan was to run it all, no matter how steep the hills got - and there were lots of hills! I succeeded except for a brief stop just 3 minutes into the run when an Eastern Milk Snake blocked my progress by stretching all the way across a narrow trail.

'Bent and I have been watching "Austin Stevens" on Discovery HD lately. He's a photographer who specializes in dangerous animals, and even if he's looking for rhinos that day, he can't walk past a deadly snake without picking it up with his hands and snake handling stick, and shoving it into the lens of the TV camera. We always think of Shifty, our cameraman friend, and imagine how annoying it must be to film people who gleefully shove poisonous creatures at you in every episode. "Oooooh, look - that single drop of venom he just released would be enough to kill a human. And there's no antivenom for it. And oh my, it's an absolutely horrible way to die. OK now, let me show you his teeth more closely - they are quite remarkable."

I was afraid the poor snake would get squished by mountain bikers, so I gently tossed a few small pieces of wood a few inches in front of him. He didn't care - he wasn't leaving his nice warm patch of sunshine on the trail. I bushwhacked around him and kept my fingers crossed.

I could hear a couple of mountain bikers about 5 minutes behind me as I ran the northeast single track, so I kept my ears cocked the way BulletDog does when she's expecting 'Bent home from work. They hadn't seen me, and I didn't want to freak them out on a blind corner or be forced to leap into a patch of poison ivy - but it never happened. It's a little embarrassing for them that they couldn't catch me on bikes, given that I don't run like MrPither! Before heading to the northwest for a different loop, I made a detour to the start of the trail to see if there were snake parts strewn across the trail. Happily, it appears that my slimy little friend had slithered into the woods before the bikes arrived.

I was just watching some video from this year's Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain and wondering why it's so hard to get decent insurance for a mountain bike orienteering event...

TDF with 'Bent. Switched trainer bikes, so now I'll be riding my new Specialized in the woods and my old Gary Fisher in the gym. Should have done this right after ESAR, but... inertia. I like both bikes, but I'll mostly use the GF for adventure racing since I hate to see the new bike knocked around in a truck.

Woo hoo - 'Bent found a screw loose in the paddle trainer and it's as good as new. Gotta get more serious now that the Gallys are training for RockstAR!

While watching le Tour Team Time Trial. Exciting! I have no fingernails left.

Lots and lots of Bosu ball. (And more TDF.)

Relaxed recovery run on the trails of Palgrave West. After Crash ran an impressive 90 minutes on the Humber Valley Trail in her FFs, I figured it was time for a slightly longer run in mine. Today's route was Bruce Loop using the long route through F&M's both ways, plus an out-and-back run to Humber Station Rd. when I first reached the BT and another out-and-back to Duffy's Lane before I left the BT. It occurred to me that FFs wouldn't be great shoes if you lived in cougar and bear country because the tendency is to look down to watch for rocks. And then I remembered that both cougars and bears were spotted in Palgrave over the past two summers! Fortunately, the only predator I saw today was poison ivy - a few meters of it near the high point of the BT near Humber Station Rd. Right in the middle of the trail - I don't think it's been there in past years. Boo.

Frustrating warm-up session on the paddle trainer. 'Bent, please figure out why the rope keeps jumping off the pulley!

Circuit training

37, 45, 60 minutes - phew! OK, I've earned the right to watch le Tour on TV tonight.

Congrats to Slowrunner and Hingo who completed the Sinister 7 trail race this morning in Alberta - 146 km and over 5,000 meters of elevation gain! Slowrunner was 2nd female, finishing in 25 hrs, and Hingo was a few minutes behind her. Awesome job, guys!! :-)

New rule: 'Bent and I don't get to watch le Tour on TV without doing at least an hour of training that day. It is preferred that training be completed before the TV comes on, but if participants prove themselves trustworthy, training done during or after watching le Tour can be counted toward the daily total. Training done on Tour rest days can be carried forward to our own rest day if required. We'll see how it goes...

For some reason, running yesterday's race 50% faster than I did led to 'Bent's legs feeling some fatigue today. I didn't feel fully recovered, of course, but I had more zip in my legs than yesterday. We headed out for an "easy recovery bike ride", according to 'Bent, but I had other plans. We explored lots of single track in Palgrave and Albion, and I worked on pushing hard up the hills - trying to pass 'Bent on uphill sections if he was ahead of me. It was fun and a great workout, and now my legs are seriously pooped!

A shocking discovery before our bike ride... My hair had been temporarily straightened after wearing a pony tail yesterday, and my new SPF 60 sunscreen tinted my face Geisha Girl white. When I put on my big sunglasses and looked in the mirror - yikes, it was a blonde Michael Jackson!

'Bent, Tino, Vents and I headed up to do the 25K course at the Creemore Vertical Challenge, and Glenn met us there. This was a last minute plan by 'Bent and myself, signing up on Thursday afternoon only an hour before registration closed. I'd thought it would be good training to do something tough that I couldn't bail out on partway through.

Creemore is a fun race course - a mix of different types of trails and roads with some steep creek crossings with rope assist. As the name would suggest, there isn't much flat ground - you're almost always climbing or descending, often at a very steep angle, especially on the descents. A purist might say there is too much gravel road to call this a trail race, but I thought the variety was interesting. The weather couldn't have been more perfect - breezy, partly cloudy and relatively cool for July.

In spite of all this general wonderfulness, my legs refused to cooperate. I'd planned to approach this as a training event, so I started off slowly and just chugged along admiring the scenery. My only real effort was in running every part of the course that I thought I *should* run, which meant I didn't walk as many hills as the runners around me, although I did plenty of walking on the steep stuff. In spite of the relaxed pace, my legs felt like lead. I convinced myself that I just needed a long warm-up, but when I still felt like crap after 45 minutes, I realized that wasn't it.

I might have just written it off as a bad day except that things turned around. I looked at my GPS, wondering if I'd made it to the halfway point yet and was thrilled to see that I was already 1 km beyond it. After that, my legs didn't exactly feel zippy, but they felt about as good as they could feel after 90 minutes of pounding up and down hills. In the last 5 km, I got the urge to race a little, and the last part of the course suited me perfectly - big logs across the trail, a couple of steep creek crossings with rope assist and a bog where we had to wait in line to balance our way across a slippery culvert. (No, this 25K wouldn't be anybody's PB!)

I'm not sure why I felt so crapulous for the first 90 minutes, but I'm wondering if my night owl tendencies are the problem. I've been getting to bed after midnight far too often lately, and maybe when the alarm goes off at 5:20 a.m., my body isn't ready for running yet. Also, I only drank half my usual amount of coffee this morning, which seemed like a good idea at the time (avoiding long porta-pottie lines) but maybe wasn't so brilliant.

Trail ultrarunners have always seemed to be some of the nicest people in the world, but today I met the exception who proved the rule. Early in the race, I found myself behind a man who stood out because his shirt and shorts were cotton, and he ran all 25K with a heavy padded jacket under one arm. Periodically, he would toss food wrappers onto the ground - grrrr. I don't think his outfit was freshly laundered, so I passed him to get upwind. But it turned out that he did a series of short, high-speed intervals with near-walking in between. So as soon as he got passed, he would shoot past that runner, then slow down again. So I wasn't free of the aroma for awhile. A little later, someone right behind me screamed "CAR!!" loudly in my ear. I nearly did a swan dive into the ditch and was surprised that I didn't see the vehicle. Later in the race, I was on a twisty, narrow downhill section of road when the same thing happened - an urgent scream of "CAR!!" right in my ear. My heart rate doubled, and I dove off the road again, only to see this same guy grinning, "Ha! I got you again!" Grrr, jerk.

However, the other trail runners were the same nice people I've always met in these events, and there were lots of friendly exchanges that more than made up for Mr. Sense-of-Humour.

It was awesome to cross the finish line - especially since I had turned to start the 2nd loop for the 50K event and needed to be called back. I had purposely avoided monitoring my time vs. any goal, but I'd looked at last year's results (including amazing 2.5 hr finishes by Slowrunner and Rocky) and thought it would be nice to break 3 hrs. So I'm happy with this, but I need to get back to doing more long runs. My last real long run was Sulphur Springs, and when your only long runs are races, you get the results that you deserve.

We do a lot of different types of events, and I have to award a gold star to these race organizers. The venue was perfect - a private property with a large, shaded yard beside the Mad River. A bagpiper played at the start and at one of the early corners of the course. Beer, pizza and other snacks were served post-race. Our finisher's medals were handmade pottery handed out by smiling children who proudly told me they had tied the ribbons on the medals themselves. The prizes were great. First prize got a handmade pottery bowl (or 4 plates) + a pound of Creemore fair trade organic coffee + maple syrup. 2nd and 3rd prize got pottery mugs with their coffee and maple syrup. Almost everyone got a draw prize - except for poor 'Bent, who had an awesome race - 2:02 and 13th place, not far behind Blaze Runners Tarno and Almageddon, and ahead of Bob McG. Glad we decided to go! (Although it'll be interesting to see how my knee feels tomorrow after the downhill pounding.)

Today's run was a very thorough tour of Palgrave West, including out-and-backs near Russell's barn and Wheelie's pond. I was trying to decide whether I could enter Saturday's Creemore Vertical Challenge as a training event, given that I haven't been doing long runs lately, and it will take me 3+ hrs to get around that very hilly course. I felt fine today, especially after the first 20 minutes, and I worked on pushing up the hills. So 'Bent and I are now signed up for the race. It'll be fun to see our friends even though I haven't trained properly. We are supposed to be getting ready for a Mountain Marathon after all!

Happy Canada Day! The weather was on-and-off showers, so 'Bent and I hung out with the pooches for a trainer movie. Today's DVD was "The Cyclist" by an acclaimed Iranian director - one of the few movies I've ever seen in Farsi with subtitles. It wasn't one of those slick, modern Iranian films in Farsi that we all see every day; it was chock full of melodramatic music and over-acting. On the bright side, it's ideal for a trainer movie because it has lots and lots of cycling. Working with a circus promoter, the protagonist tries to bike around the town square non-stop for 7 days and 7 nights to raise money to pay for his sick wife's hospital care. Crowds gather, bets are made, vendors sell food, dishonest people get involved, and the ugly underbelly of humankind is exposed for us all to see. The End.

After the bike ride, 'Bent and I went for a short trail run around Palgrave West before heading to the Inglewood Farmer's Market for some Canada Day fun. I tried my new Salomon Exo 3/4 compression tights, which are supposed to hold all the energy-sapping jiggly thigh bits in place while I run. 'Bent was too much of a gentleman to comment on whether he thought the tights were working, but I liked how they felt. I also tried my new XT Wings shoes. My first pair a year ago gave me blisters and seemed prone to ankle turning, but this year's model worked just fine and felt cushy.