Training Log Archive: Bash

Trekking cross-country around Albion Hills, picking up controls from the Giant's Rib Raid with The Pillar, BulletDog and Superfly George. Beautiful sunny day, great company, happy pooches, feet even muddier than yesterday...

Event: Giant's Rib Raid
 

Giant's Rib Raid Adventure Run. An awesome day in so many ways! We were lucky to get amazing spring weather - a frosty morning followed by bright, warm sun. After the race, people hung out on the deck in short sleeves for hours. We got to see dozens of AR and orienteering friends, and it was exciting to watch most of central Canada's best teams competing hard on the race course. Hammer's race course design was interesting and fun, and even though we live locally, there were surprises for us. I learned that there is a big difference between being familiar with a specific location and being able to choose a good route to get there quickly! And many of those routes took us through areas where we hadn't travelled before. It was our best adventure run ever, admittedly helped in part by local knowledge, but we also ran more and faster than we usually do. (A big thanks to Bent, who towed me on the road and the longer trail sections - and ignored my epithets as we hurtled together down icy hills.) Hingo, Bent and I have done so many events together that our teamwork is reasonably fine-tuned, which helps us move more quickly and makes the day more fun. My Flying Pig orienteering experience was very useful - great practice for making route decisions on the fly. We finished 9th, which was totally unexpected and completely blew us away. Several months ago, we'd set a goal of reaching the top ten, but we'd abandoned hope when we saw the strong field entered in this race. We're especially proud of the great performance of our 17-year-old junior Tree Hugger friend, Pate Neumann, and his team of Brittanys from the local high school.

Nice hike on a sunny day with Etoile and Adventure Girl.

An hour of excellent core and ab strength instruction with K/O - I'll call it 15 minutes of training. Now I need to build this into my regular schedule, since I only got a "fair" rating on core strength on my last fitness assessment. Rumour has it that having a muscle or two in the abs and back can be rather helpful in many athletic endeavours. I'm looking forward to finding out some day!

Around Palgrave with BulletDog. Some nice trail running and some slogging through snow. I went in thigh-deep at one point quite unexpectedly and hyper-extended my knee. More ice on the trails than I expected. I might be coming down with a cold right before the Giant's Rib Raid - rats! On the bright side, my legs had some spring in them - unlike yesterday's Legs O' Lead.

Hydrospinning Class - Drills and Technique. Classmates included Bent, The Minister, Thumbs of Death, and the Terranauts. I'm starting to get used to the routine of the 4:20 a.m. alarm on Wednesdays. When the class finishes next month, I'll keep the alarm set so I can go for a 5 a.m. long run every Wednesday. NOT!!!!

Hydrospinning Class - Intervals. Today we worked on stretching forward using the hip and shoulder to place the paddle in the water as far ahead as possible, while maintaining a position of strength. Coach called me The Wolverine because of my high cadence, so I switched to a bigger paddle. That slowed me down and also showed me that I am definitely a right-handed paddler, i.e. with the higher resistance of the bigger paddle, it's clear that my strokes are better on the left side. Must work on that. Also from the Coach:
1) Sit up straight and open your belly button up. Remind my teammates regularly because that will remind me.
2) With a bigger paddle, I started to teeter-totter. Must not do that.
3) Lean toward paddle in position #3, not away from it.

Around Palgrave West with ThunderDog. Conditions are changing rapidly. Many areas are bare, although it's still possible to find calf-deep snow without much trouble. I was sore from yesterday's crash landing, but the real problem was that my legs felt like lead. Not sure what that's all about. I didn't have much sleep, but I ran at the same time last Wednesday with the same short sleep and felt stronger than I have in weeks. Clearly, I need to increase my chocolate consumption leading up to the Giant's Rib Raid.

Albion Hills with BulletDog on a beautiful day. Some trail running and some slogging through deep snow. And slush. And ice-cold, ankle-deep water. Less snow than in Palgrave (lower elevation). Surprisingly, some of the deciduous forest was bare, dry and perfect for running. Going along the Humber River, I came to a bend with a high, steep bluff plunging directly into the icy, spring-swollen water. No problem. After the Flying Pig, I'm used to dragging myself up steep, muddy slopes using roots and saplings. I got about 5 meters up the bluff when both footholds gave way at the same time and my hand slid off the little sapling that I was clutching. I started slithering down the slimy bluff on my stomach, gathering speed quickly. This is it - I'm going into the river! I really shouldn't do crazy stuff like this in places where nobody would think to look for me! But just before I landed in the river, a log smashed into a body part that shall remain nameless, and stopped my slide. OUCH! After a moment or two to decide whether I was badly injured or just caught in an embarrassing position, I managed to get up and limp back to the car. Looks like I'll survive, but I may not be running too quickly for the next few days!