Training Log Archive: Bash

Trail run at Glen Haffy with Bent and BulletDog - final long run before Raid The Hammer. Other than the Wine Classic, this was my only long run in the past couple of months - and it didn't even end up being very long because my knee became quite painful after the first hour. [Expletive deleted!] This was possibly the result of my new super-bionic knee brace, or perhaps the smaller arch support I'd added to my lighter weight Salomon shoes. Or maybe it's because I went biking yesterday. Or because I'm a week older than I was at the Wine Classic. Too many variables to know which one to blame.

The other problem was that I was utterly without energy today. I'd love to know... where does it come from? Where does it go? How do I get it back? On Thursday I was flying (by my standards), and today I felt like I was dragging a sack of bricks up every hill. I'm not that good at morning training, so there is probably something to be learned about appropriate timing of a breakfast including specific foods and drinks. A lot of races start in the morning, so it would be worth figuring out what my body wants at that time of day. I'd be much more successful if all races started at 5 p.m.

Other than those problems, it was a wonderful autumn day with cool sunshine and brilliant yellow leaves covering the trees and the trails. Even though I didn't feel 100%, I wouldn't have wanted to do anything different today. :-)

Today was a rare, sunny, gorgeous autumn day - perfect for biking. Foolishly, Bent and I spent until 3 p.m. trapped in the basement, cleaning out our grimy outdoor gear storage room. Then we made a break for it and rode mostly on trails to Caledon East to do some shopping. Bent really flies on his new recumbent bike! I tried to take it easy because pedalling is not a happy motion for my "warranty expired" kneecap cartilage. I won't be racing on a bike until late January, so this is a good time to stick to light base training for cycling.

Leg strength routine

Running with Bent, BulletDog and ThunderDog (for the first loop) in Palgrave West. Bent pushed me up to a good pace, and I ran up all the hills. Woo hoo! The autumn forest is bee-yoo-ti-full. I wore my Adidas gear in honour of Team Adidas Canada, our friends and sponsors, who finished 3rd in Beast of the East this morning. Good for them!

Trail run around Palgrave West. I've been feeling "creaky" since running 13 km on Sunday, so didn't expect a good run today. But as soon as I got out there, I felt energetic, so I decided to do my time trial loop. I set a new PB by running up every single hill! :-) I tested out the combination of a bulkier knee brace and a less bulky arch support. I am turning into the Bionic Woman - except that the new parts don't make me "better than I was".

Leg strength training routine - with considerable "assistance" from two 70-lb Lab Retrievers who love it when a human lies on the floor.

Oooh, my ankle hurts after turning it in yesterday's race.

On the bright side, I am pleased to report that I have finally removed all the burrs from all the clothing that I wore on Day 2 at the Ontario Champs. (It took about 3 hours of TV watching over a week.) Unfortunately, yesterday's race at Bronte Creek gave me a whole new batch of clothing to de-burr.