Training Log Archive: Bash

Throwback Thursday - Here's Mom's graduation photo taken in the same place at U of Guelph where I ran across the grass yesterday. This was 1955 - almost 60 years ago, shortly before my parents got married.

Remember that conference abstract two years ago where researchers said that said running too often, too fast or too much distance would increase your risk of dying? Although that was the headline in the media ("Too Much Exercise Can Kill You"), their real conclusion was that less running was healthier than more running. All runners in their study had a lower mortality risk than people who didn't run at all. But that would have made a boring, predictable headline.

So... the study has finally been published in a cardiology journal and guess what? After undergoing peer review of the statistical analysis, the study's conclusions have changed substantially. The "too much exercise is deadly" slant is gone because the data didn't show that at all - something Alex Hutchinson of Sweat Science argued at the time. The new sound byte headline is "a little running is just as good for you as a lot of running", i.e. people who run less than an hour a week have the same risk of dying as people who run more than 3 hours a week, and runners still have lower risk of mortality than non-runners. Turns out that it's just fine to run fast too, if you can.

http://www.runnersworld.com/health/running-mortali...

http://www.runnersworld.com/health/new-research-bi...

I had to entertain myself in Guelph for a few hours while Mocha had her second chemo session. (She's doing really well!) I brought running gear and spent part of the time running around the University of Guelph Arboretum and campus.

It's not a campus I know well but both my parents went to U of G so our family has always had a strong connection there. I've often seen photos of my parents and their parents standing in front of Johnston Hall on their graduation day in 1955 so it was a real throwback moment when I realized I was running on the same patch of grass. After 59 years, both of their university classes still have annual reunions that are well attended considering that their classmates have scattered geographically and are 80+ years old if they are still living. It's quite amazing compared to my class.

'Bent had left Schlepp Jr. lying tantalizingly close to the front door. (This is the tire that Coach Spaff has him drag to simulate hill climbing.) I went out in our yard to give it a try, and Mocha walked companionably beside me - back and forth, back and forth. I can see how it helps. Running with it would be tough!

To celebrate BazingaDog being 3.5 years old and as mature as he's likely to get until his senior years, we fenced in part of our property today. It stings a little to fork out a couple of nice mountain bikes worth of cash to build a fence we'd rather not have, but it hurts more when he yanks me off my feet when he's on leash and sees a deer. Even 'Bent has been pulled onto his face. We'll need to take a few detours to get from point A to point B from now on but it will be nice to just open the door and let the lad out.

Advertising executive Kevin J. McGroarty clearly had fun writing his own obituary. He claims that he died "after battling a long fight with mediocracy"... "He would like to remind his friends: 'Please, don't email me, I'm dead.'"
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/timesleader/obitu...

Dakota Jones is one of the best and funniest writers on the ultrarunning scene. Here's his report from his recent DNF at Hardrock - although he doesn't talk much about his own race. This is the event where Canadian runner Adam Campbell was struck by lightning and still placed 3rd. Kilian Jornet won but that almost goes without saying!
http://www.irunfar.com/2014/07/falling-off-edges-h...

'Bent and I went for a trail run in west Caledon for a change of scenery. Our route included the Grange hill, a rocky scramble down Devil's Pulpit and a tour through Forks of the Credit Provincial Park near Belfountain.

Coach Spaff had given 'Bent his marching orders, which were... not to march - only run. There were a few places where it was too steep or rocky but he tried very hard to comply. This encouraged me to run more too; 'Bent came back for me if he got too far ahead.

The heat got to me in the last 45 minutes, and I staggered up the hills after that - much slower than our hiking pace on Friday night, even after 10 hours. There may be a lesson there... Fun otherwise!

It's fun to see a whale from a kayak but I wouldn't want it to lift my boat out of the water! These paddlers were a little too relaxed about a potentially dangerous situation but I guess there was nothing else they could do once they'd ventured too close to the whales in the first place.

Funderstorm, 'Bent and I drove up to the north side of Mono Cliffs Provincial Park for a Friday night trail adventure. The plan was to do a brisk 50 km hike with full running packs and test our lights for a few hours at the end.



'Bent and I were carrying the stuff we plan to carry for UTMB. It has a significant mandatory gear list by ultrarunning standards; the race takes runners high in the Alps where bad weather and hypothermia are serious risks so the list makes sense. (Except for the mandatory 6 cm elastic adhesive bandage - bulky, unavailable in Canada and completely useless since I already carry nice, trustworthy 5 cm Leukotape, stretchy and non-stretchy.)

I haven't spent much time at Mono Cliffs so we did a little extra exploring there.





We continued south until we hit the north side of the Hockley Loop, then headed east to the Three Beeyatches.





As we came down the huge 5th Line hill, we saw a woman running up toward us. Impressive! Not surprisingly, it was Slowrunner. She was heading out for a 6-hour night run in preparation for the Fat Dog 120.



Where the Bruce side trail meets the Bruce main trail at Sally's Pinnacle, we left the Hockley Loop route to go east on the main trail.



This is where the trail passes through a closed ski area; it has all been rerouted in the past couple of months.

We'd hidden a cooler in the woods near the Tai Chi Centre to be an aid station about 4 hours in. That's where Slowrunner had parked and she had offered to bring the cooler home for us. I'm pretty sure she also meant that we should use her car as an aid station table, even though she didn't say so specifically.



Somewhere in this area, I half-turned the ankle on my bad foot, something I haven't done in 13 months. There was no pain (then) and I don't expect major repercussions but I was disappointed that all my proprioception work didn't prevent it.

We met talented ultrarunner Melanie Boultbee shortly after that; she and a friend were heading north for a 30 km night run.

We had some great hilltop views in the evening light.



And then it got dark. We put on our headlamps just after we crossed Hwy 9. (That is always a scary spot.)



We went through Glen Haffy conservation area, taking the Palgrave Side Trail through the Dingle and eventually to our house, aka Aid Station #2. Boy, were the pooches glad to see us! (Their bladder capacity helped to shape our route plan.)

We headed back out into Palgrave West and East, keeping an eye on the GPS since we just wanted to get to 50 km and go to bed. This was tougher mentally than the point-to-point part of our trek. Neither Funderstorm nor I used caffeine since we wanted to be able to sleep afterward so we were stumbling around a bit. 'Bent was full of energy and bursting with conversation.





Most of the time, I live in the Ambit world, where the error correction algorithm under-measures distance on forested single track but tonight I decided that 'Bent's Garmin should rule. I used the Ambit elevation gain though since I trust it more.

We got home after 3 a.m. where 'Bent (unfairly) was able to sleep in spite of the caffeine. Funderstorm and I were too sore to sleep very well. Here's our finish line shot just before the huge dog greeting.



Notes:

- Damn, that pack was heavy. There were indents on my shoulders. I need to figure out what I can live without. (And I mean that literally.)
- I wrapped around my little toes with Leukotape and ended up with a huge blister on the tip of my left little toe. This started less than 20 km in and was super painful. There didn't seem to be anything I could do about it but I need to figure out how to prevent it.
- My BashBlaster headlamp strap still hurts my forehead. We need to fix that before the World Rogaining Champs.
- The little extra Salomon pocket on the front straps worked out well for maps and phone but I still need to test it while running.
- It's really hard to get the bladder back into a full pack. I should test the bladder filling device that works via the mouthpiece. 'Bent has one.
- We agreed that hiking 50 km seemed harder than running it. It's a lot of time on feet!
- Still fun anyway, especially going out for breakfast the next day. :)

More riding around Albion Hills to GPS more trails for the updated mountain bike orienteering map. Before I started this project, I thought it would be possible to ride all the trails in Albion Hills in about 3 hours. Not true! Still more to ride after my 3rd session, and I haven't bothered with the park and campground roads since they haven't changed. It would go faster if I weren't trying to ride EFI since some backtracking is required. Not too long till I can focus on course setting instead of map making. The wheels are already turning... (hehe!)

What Commonwealth Games sport are you best suited for? The BBC can tell you. Apparently, I should have been a long distance road cyclist.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-28062001

Speaking of which, here is breaking news from the Tour de France. ;)
(Not a spoiler.)
http://www.theonion.com/video/breaking-tour-de-fra...

Romance for Athletes
http://krcblog.tumblr.com

Ran in Palgrave West and *boy* were my glutes hurting from yesterday's strength training. Four years ago, Crash and I used to meet some mornings for Bash 'n' Crash 500s, which were 500 m speed intervals on the Bruce Trail. I know I'm slower now and thought this would be interesting for a time trial. My first interval was 2:11 - woot! When we started the intervals in 2010, my first couple were 2:17 and I worked my way up to 2:05 over a few weeks - although only once. I could usually break 2:10 though.

Each interval today felt faster than the one before. Yay! But in fact, each interval was *slower* than the previous one. Boo! Well, the last two were the same. I'd planned 5 intervals but decided to quit before I tripped on a root or in a soft horse footprint. I was pretty tired. Who knew it was so hard to do speedwork only once a year?

2:11
2:14
2:16
2:16

I ran another half hour around Palgrave West. Warm-up and cooldown each included a long raspberry picking break.

Pushed hard today. With less than 6 weeks to the race, I'm probably at the stage where I should just try to maintain the strength I have but it's hard to resist the gut feeling that getting stronger must be good. My gimpy foot is a lot less gimpy than it was but it sure would hurt less if I had Coach LD's leg muscles. Not that I could ever come close but it's nice to reach for the stars! :)

I recognize and/or use all of these terms but are they uniquely Canadian?

Crash rode in the national mountain bike champs today. Every ride seems short after the Tour Divide! She has so many stories from almost 5,000 km of riding through the mountains. My favourite is from New Mexico where there were black cows wandering all over the place. She rode right up to one, expecting it to move off the trail. Turns out it was a bear. Oops.

Funderstorm and I met for a fun, albeit humid, Hockley Loop. The clouds looked threatening but we only had a little rain. My legs felt good but I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's rest day.

'Bent's workout today was 1 hour hike, 2 hours run, 1 hour hike so he was able to join us for part of our run. Great to catch up with Funderstorm on the trail and even better to enjoy a relaxed lunch at the Black Birch. 'Bent took advantage of FS' expert advice to order a yummy-looking dark beer. I splurged on the beer-batter fish and chips so will have to do penance this week. Not tonight though - we're having dinner with Crash so we can hear stories of the Tour Divide.

Added missing piece of GPS track - user error as usual.

David Foster - musician, record producer (Céline Dion, Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson...) and 16-time Grammy winner - headlined a recent charity gala in Caledon. He asked if anyone in the audience thought they could sing. My 19-year-old friend Andie Trépanier put up her hand, and Ben Mulroney handed her his microphone. It went pretty well...

Browner and I met at Kerncliff Park in Burlington to work on some team navigation techniques in advance of the World Rogaining Champs next month. Once we had located each other in the first place, things went quite well. ;)

When I did a rogaine with Barb Bryant a few years ago, we decided that we wasted time when we showed something to our teammate on our own map. It takes a few seconds to get oriented when you look at someone else's map, then you need to find your place on your own map again. So Barb and I tried to explain ideas clearly enough that the other person could just look at their own map. That's one of the things Browner and I worked on today - also other things like sharing duties on pace counting, bearings, etc. I'm looking forward to a fun weekend in South Dakota!

We had a team bonding experience when a buzzing bug flew into Browner's ear and didn't want to leave! In spite of best intentions, we ended up in Poison Ivy Central when we went west of Kerns Rd. Yecch. This would have been the 4th pair of shoes in the PI contamination pile on our patio but while I was out of town today, my hero 'Bent scrubbed 3 pairs of shoes *and* my bike! Thank you!!!!! :)

(Logged estimated moving time)

Coach LD, 'Bent and I went for a destination / pig-out ride. Appetizer Stop was just 400 m from home at the first field of red and black raspberry bushes. Then we rode 23 km to Inglewood for our Ice Cream Stop. I decided to live dangerously by mixing Salted Caramel Truffle with Cookies and Cream. Sadly, they were out of Moose Tracks. Then we returned on the rail trail and climbed Thinker's Hill for an extended Dessert Stop. So many berries! We stopped again for Second Dessert and Third Dessert. It's tough to resist plump, ripe berries when they're drooping over the trail.

It was really good to have a plan with a friend today. My legs felt fatigued from the last two days, and it would have been easy to talk myself into a rest day. As it was, I did a fair bit of drafting. Glad I went - it was a fun afternoon with beautiful sunshine and good conversation. The evening sky looks ominous; we'll get some weather tomorrow.

More trail checking at Albion Hills in preparation for the Star Tracks MTB-O event. Lots of fun and hard work too since I had to ride up a bunch of down trails in order to GPS everything.

I haven't biked much this year and am pleasantly surprised that my legs feel strong on climbs after all the running and strength training. I'm looking forward to getting back to more AR and multisport.

I stopped in Mad Dog Meadow to check on the wild raspberry crop. My search was fruitful. ;)

Btw I can see why Albion Hills closed for so long after the ice storm. This area was just beside some single track.

I wanted a change from my usual trail runs and I definitely succeeded! The first change was apparent when I arrived at the starting point an hour from home and discovered that some canine had stolen one of the insoles from my shoes. So my style today could be described as "semi-minimalist".

The route idea was simple: use Dee's awesome Tour de Blue map and go from the bottom of Pretty River Valley Provincial Park up toward Blue Mountain - just to 12&13 Sideroad - then check the time and come back the same way. Much of it would be on the Bruce main or side trails. I was looking at 2.5 to 3 hours, maybe even less with the missing insole since there would be lots of downhill pounding.

The forest at Pretty River was lush and dark. I started with a podcast on but turned it off because I wanted to be alert for approaching mountain bikes since I wouldn't see them in time. As it turned out, I didn't see any bikes in the woods at all. The route started out with a terrific climb that took me to a famous landmark. Looks like my Ambit2 is working well!



I carried on north on a combination of trails and gravel roads. It was all fun and games until the trail turned into a sea of poison ivy just before 12&13 Sideroad. I made it to the road but didn't want to go back that way; I figured it should be possible to make a loop instead. First I did a hill repeat on 12&13 Sideroad, which is one of the bigger hills in southern Ontario. I noticed some of Bob's signage from the North Face Endurance Challenge piled neatly at a junction. Then I ran on the shoulder of Grey Rd. #19 thinking that I should be able to find a way up to the top of Pretty River Park even though my map didn't show anything.

The sun was getting low in the sky so this was turning into an adventure, given that I only had an iPhone flashlight. My first attempt to find a trail at a dead-end road was unsuccessful and it felt like I would be trespassing. The next one started off well, then emerged onto an unmapped road that ended in what looked like a snowmobile trail with a big "closed" sign. I took it anyway and found myself walking in cold water up to knee deep. The slope in the direction I wanted to go was almost a cliff so the trail veered sharply north. I followed it uncertainly and finally emerged from the water. It felt a lot like WT course testing - except without a headlamp, compass, extra warmth layer and one of the world's best AR navigators keeping me company.

Without a compass, I watched my altimeter until it seemed that I should be at the right altitude and - voilà! - a Bruce Trail blaze appeared. I hurried through the forest, which seemed dark even though there was still light outside on the rare occasions when I got a view.



People who know me will assume that I ran a little extra to get the session up to 4 hours but actually, that was a coincidence since I didn't look at my time at all. However, I *did* make a quick trip up the side trail to the Bruce Trail highest point again to get my elevation gain up to 4 digits. :)

And then I scrubbed and scrubbed with Tecnu, which I'd brought along just in case. Fingers crossed for the next 96 hours. I now have 3 pairs of shoes and a pair of trekking poles waiting for poison ivy decontamination. I guess I can't put it off much longer.

Fun exploration!

Wilderness Traverse made the Huffington Post!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/liftopia/11-adventur...

Fyi for those who tried to watch the WT tracker map... It wasn't our imagination; there was a problem with some of the data sent by DeLorme (tracking device company) to our tracker map. The trackers themselves were broadcasting good data, except for a couple that stopped working (they probably got wet). This is great news since it means that it can be fixed for future events.

Our tracking at WT 2013 was so good that I immediately decided to replace my own SPOT with a DeLorme when the time comes. But this year made me think twice about that. Glad to know that future tracking can be as good as it was in 2013.

I'd planned to run today too but there's still WT stuff to do, plus all the things I didn't get done last week because I was going away. I will make up for it tomorrow! Really!

Checked my phone records - just under 800 texts sent or received as part of managing WT HQ on the weekend! Thank you 'Bent for the external keyboard for my phone.

Canadian ultrarunner Adam Campbell, who used to be on the Salomon Flight Crew with me, finished 3rd at the gruelling Hardrock 100 ultrarun on the weekend in spite of a little mishap at the highest point on the course... He and his pacer were struck by lightning at 4200 m. They were very lucky; the only serious damage was to Adam's headlamp.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/touch/story.html?id=1...

Btw they mention that the course has 21,000 m of climb and descent in 162 km, by which they mean 10,500 m of elevation gain - the usual number used to describe a race course.

No sleep since Saturday at 5:30 a.m. but I may have napped for 5 minutes before the awards ceremony today. Congrats to all WT racers on toughing it out in some of the worst AR weather ever. The fire chief told us there was 60 mm of rain overnight in some locations around the race course! It was heavy like rain in the jungle - not regular Ontario rain - and we sure didn't foresee it in the forecast of "intermittent showers". As we listened to it thudding on the arena's metal roof, we had to shout at one another in HQ in order to be heard. I can only imagine what it was like on the race course!

I'm so proud of the rookies who took on this huge challenge and of friends on more experienced teams who rocked the course. And how about BugsinTeeth winning the Open category? Wow! Congrats to all. Sleep well this week.

Event: Wilderness Traverse
 

Managed Wilderness Traverse event HQ at the McDougall Rec Centre in Nobel - These days, this mostly consists of:

- Reading and writing a bazillion texts with various volunteers - big thanks to 'Bent for the bluetooth keyboard that made this much less painful. The volunteers and I send each other tons of info about what's happening or coming up, and ask and answer questions throughout the race. This was almost non-stop for about 28 hours, counting the time taken to deal with the info in the texts. Sometimes my phone would go off 3 times in a minute.

Texting replaces the unreliable, expensive race radios we used to use. The one disadvantage is that people don't overhear other conversations so we lose the chance for someone to jump in and say, "Hey! I'm nearby and I could help out!" Otherwise, it's much better. I have a written record of all the conversations so the system is much less prone to error.

- Updating the leaderboard, team statuses, and short course info - we aim to do this near real time, subject to the ability of our CP volunteers to send us info. I follow a lot of races and hate that leaderboards are usually stale and unreliable so this is one of my pet projects at WT. Because the tracking was wonkier than usual this year, the leaderboard was extra important.

- Talking with real live people who come into Race HQ - volunteers and occasional members of the public (although I'm afraid I am often too busy to be sociable). Thankfully, Clean and 1L were able to help.

- Responding to mesages from DeLorme devices, most of them from racers.

- Problem solving - This is the "meat" of the HQ role - the part I love and hate the most, the part that is most like racing. It's a bit like emergency department triage; what needs to be dealt with first? And how to do it with limited resources? Example of one such moment when our only roving driver was out on another call:

(1) The 3-member volunteer team at a key CP had just discovered a broken headlamp and had no spare batteries for their other headlamps, which were already dim. The sun had just set. Stores were now closed.

(2) The TA farthest from HQ was running low on water for the racers, couldn't find a place to refill, and was in the middle of nowhere. All our water containers were out on the course already so we couldn't fill something up and take it to them.

(3) A team had dropped out at the far end of the race course and wanted a ride back to Nobel. Dropped-out teams are wet, sometimes chilly and definitely ready to get off the race course. Often it takes some coordination for our driver and the team to find one another if they have not dropped out at a CP but luckily this team was at TA2.

OK, quick, solve these problems without leaving the arena! :) With the help of roving driver Tom Koster (two-time 2nd place finisher at WT and owner of a spare headlamp) and Bob's awesome gas station shopping skills, we made everyone happy over the next 90 minutes.

There was one potentially serious injury - a freak accident where a racer jumped onto one end of a log and the other end flew up and hit him in the head. He and his teammate are very competent outdoors people and strong athletes who handled the situation well. He was able to finish the trek but soon after that, his teammate and our medic team decided to call an ambulance to get him checked out by the hospital. He was released and slept the rest of the night at HQ with his teammate waking him at 2-hour intervals. They were doing well and the teammate said they'd like to come back and finish next time!

Other than that, the biggest "situation" was a team that inadvertently used the 911 function on the DeLorme tracker in a remote location on the trek. Fortunately, after a few tense moments between Bob, DeLorme HQ and myself, they sent a follow-up message to say they were lost. Phew! It took a little longer to get in contact with them and help them out. Their cell phone battery was low, just to increase the challenge.

Although it was non-stop, the HQ role felt manageable this year because of the stellar work of my co-pilots on the HQ team, Clean and 1L. I just gave them access to our system and said "Go!", and they provided incredible coverage all weekend. They provided a staggering amount of real time info with photos on the WT Live Coverage News, Facebook and Twitter. It's well worth checking it out now if you're interested in seeing how the race played out. There are different stories on the Live Coverage News vs. Facebook but Twitter is similar to Facebook and less detailed. It may be worth searching for the #wtrav hashtag on Twitter to see what volunteers, racers and spectators have posted. The Breathe Mag team provided excellent coverage too with outstanding photography; we're so lucky to have them.

You can access all the different types of info from our Live Coverage 2014 page. Keep watching it as I post racer reports and more photos over the next week or two.
http://www.wildernesstraverse.com/live-coverage/li...

Much appreciation to our amazing volunteer team, to the racers for your ongoing support and - as always - a huge thanks to Bob for all that you do for the AR community.

Event site set-up
Racer check-in with 30+ Delorme tracker briefings until my throat hurt
Answered lots of questions
Hugged lots of friends
WT website updates, posted maps shortly after the racers got them
Pizza!! Who knew you could get gourmet pizza delivered to the arena in Nobel? This changes everything.

Then 1L and I "enjoyed" a short, broken sleep on cots in a hockey change room with a blaring light.

All in all, things went very smoothly today. Bob and I have worked together enough that we don't need to talk all that much during the weekend. Good thing 'cause we don't get along at all. ;)

Yahoo!*** After about 5 years of not having a dentist, the Province has made it legal for dentists to treat their spouses again. Now it won't take the better part of a day to travel to another city to see (and pay) a dentist whose philosophy and techniques are similar to 'Bent's. (Something I haven't done very often since it's so time-consuming so my teeth definitely need work.)

*** 'Bent's response is probably *not* "yahoo". Apparently, I've been known to talk back to the doctor. ;)
http://rcdso.informz.ca/RCDSO/archives/archive_440...

Day turned upside down when Mocha started chemo unexpectedly. This is good news - at least as good as cancer-related news can be - since it means that the doc feels she has already recovered enough from radiation to move to the final stage of treatment. This is what (hopefully) nukes any cancer cells that may have spread. Then she can go back to just being a regular dog. Yay.

So now I sit in Guelph thinking about all the stuff I need to do at home before heading to WT in the morning. So much for the good night's sleep that was on my "to do" list!

I just listened to Bob's TA1 podcast. Excellent! He has a ton of experience to share, and he has even more humility. No one can accuse him of shameless marketing since he didn't mention the name of any event he organizes! He and Randy referred to WT as "the 24-hour race" in the same euphemistic manner actors use in talking about "The Scottish Play". Can't be too careful, I guess! ;)

Training is unlikely to happen today.

It's been a crazy week and training has been forced to take a back seat. With Wilderness Traverse this weekend, it's not going to get better for awhile. I had an opening between my radio interview with Moose FM in Parry Sound (talking about WT) and our Orienteering Ontario board conference call, so I dashed over to the Hockley Valley for 4 climbs of the 2nd Line hill and a tour of the main and side trails in Hockley Provincial Park. It was deliciously cool and I felt good. This will have to serve as my one long run of the week.

This American Life - The Radio Drama Episode #528 - provided fine entertainment, especially the opening sketch about the opera singer who got trapped in a closet. I laughed out loud a few times.

Today's winner in the Really Good Reason Why You Haven't Received Your Prize Yet category:

From the Cayuga Trails RD:
Very unfortunately, our Rep was in a pretty bad accident driving back home the Monday after the race... She's okay but her car and all of its contents including computer and paper with the awards burned to a crisp. So, we're going to need those names... Let me know.

Holy crap! That sure puts things in perspective.

Sad news: The incredible Olga Kotelko passed away two weeks ago. This retired Canadian school teacher held every track and field world record for the 90-95 age group. She didn't start track and field until she was 77 so there is still plenty of time for the rest of us. Rest in peace.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/senio...

A strange, scary and sad story: one less bear to watch for on the Wilderness Traverse course.
http://www.parrysound.com/news-story/4620783-bear-...

Much volunteer work was done. And much is left to do.

Lousy sleep last night but it was for a good cause: I wanted to text Sarah when she finished the Tour Divide so I had to keep an eye on her.

It's too early to celebrate but I'm back at my target weight after last week's Alberta FoodFest. It was worth every delicious calorie; I'd eat it all again in a heartbeat!

I decided today that I'm tired of running and hiking, and my poor mountain bike is feeling lonely. I had some work to do anyway - riding trails at Albion Hills with my Ambit to help with map updates for the Star Tracks Mountain Bike-O event on Oct. 19. I'm the course setter and am getting terrific support from the Stars, which is really cool since this type of event is new to them. I hope a lot of people can make it, hint, hint. :)

I didn't get as much done as I'd planned. I got into some poison ivy early on so I wanted to get home within two hours to scrub up. Also, I had underestimated how long it would take to travel every rideable trail in the northeast section of Albion. So... there will have to be a few other rides to GPS the rest of the park. Oh well, it was really fun. :)

Warm-up and some of Caron's 10 Minutes to Zen routines from Youtube.

Today's virtual photo hike from Day 3 of our Rockies trip: Scrambling up Mount Rundle
http://ar.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_920/per...

I joined 'Bent for the first part of his hike - from 5th Line northward over the B*tches of the Hockley Loop up to 15th Sideroad. It's easier after the Rockies but those are still steep b*tches!

And then I ran home. I started at 15th Sideroad and ran south on the Bruce Side Trail (yup, over the B*tches again), then along the main Bruce Trail to the stile at Glen Haffy, then home via the Palgrave Side Trail. The Dingle is getting pretty overgrown so I probably won't run it again for awhile.

The main trail has been totally rerouted at the old ski resort east of 5th Line. This is mostly good news since the Bruce Trail Conservancy was able to purchase some of the land there. But the bad news is that we've lost one of the excellent hill climbs in our area because they've closed the trail beside the old ski hill.

Nice to be running again although I miss the cool temperatures of Canmore!

Yay, it's that time of year! :) I'm not a big drinker so I prefer to think of this as a Tour de France chocolate eating game. But it's the same idea. :)
http://blogs.bicycling.com/blogs/thehub/the-tour-d...

For a mostly pictorial tour of hiking trails around Lake Louise, see Day 2 of our Rockies report featuring special guest star, Slice.
http://ar.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_920/per...

Around Palgrave West before dinner. It's more humid than Canmore but the mountains are smaller and my lungs are getting more oxygen, so this felt good.

This was my first run in the new Salomon Sense Pros - a blend of the S-Lab Sense Ultra upper and the Sense Mantra sole. The Pros have the same snug fit but feel a little stiffer and more cushioned. They don't have the super minimal feel of the Sense Ultras but I think I could run farther in them. JohnnyM, past winner of the Haliburton 100, is a big fan. Also, they are a pretty blue. :)

Alert readers may notice the 2.6 lb in the weight field. Yes, I purposely pigged out in Alberta so I could train better by hauling more weight up mountains. Or something like that... I will keep track until I get back to my target weight. Sigh.

Bob and I could use one more floating volunteer for Wilderness Traverse next weekend. This role would be perfect for someone who is busy during the first part of the weekend and would still enjoy being part of the event.

Starting around sunset and throughout the hours of darkness, we experience The Witching Hours. That's when individual racers or entire teams drop out for a variety of reasons. If there is no medical issue, we do our best to arrange transportation back to HQ as soon as possible but they may have to wait awhile. As they wait, they may get hungry, thirsty, cold or frustrated. Although they have safety gear and should be able to take care of themselves, I prefer to extract them sooner rather than later.

The ideal floating volunteer has his/her own vehicle that can hold the driver + 4 racers (we'll chip in for gas), has a cell phone with texting capability, is able to nap when opportunities arise so they can spend a safe all nighter on the roads, understands a little about hypothermia and minor first aid (optional but nice to have), and is comfortable driving at night on unfamiliar roads using a map. This can be a busy role that can change on a dime, e.g. a TA may need water delivered or a forgotten gear box might need to be moved ahead. It can also be a role with lots of waiting/sleeping interspersed with bouts of activity. Wilberto did this for us one year so he knows what it's like.

If anyone is interested in more info, please e-mail me. Thanks! :)

If you'd like a virtual visit to Canmore, I've posted a full report on Day 1 of our western trip - Lady Mac and Ha Ling Peak.
http://ar.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_920/per...

Travel day back to heat, humidity, hills (not mountains) and much loved pooches. Thanks for being such great hosts out west, Carbon and Carbon's Offset!

Cory and Edith Pass Loop with Carbon and 'Bent. Spectacular scenery and weather to celebrate Canada Day. Very few other hikers, only one bear, a mechanical puzzle to solve in the parking lot and a trip to the Canmore Ice Cream Bus afterward with Slice and Darcy. Photos to come. Time deducted for our 40 minute (!) lunch break at the high point.