Training Log Archive: Bash

Around Palgrave West with Bent and the pooches. Trail conditions are fast today!

Skiing all over Palgrave with Crash, Tiny, Bent and BulletDog. Beautiful sunshine, awesome snow conditions, excellent company and a brisk pace made for a great afternoon. One of the highlights was our "Crash Bar" break in a sunny clearing. Yum - those are SO good!!

I think BulletDog is actually tired now, which has almost *never* happened in her entire life.

Skiing with Bent and the pooches in dense new snow around Palgrave West. Fantastic mid-season conditions at a time of year when it's often mountain biking weather!

ThunderDog is a High Speed Hound after her spinal surgery in the summer. BulletDog, who celebrated her 2nd anniversary with us this week, is looking like she will never graduate from puppyhood. (And that's OK.)

Leg strength exercises

Watched "Saint Ralph" on DVD. A great movie for anyone who has ever run in Hamilton. I'm sure that some Raid The Hammer must have taken us to that nice waterfall Ralph ran by...?

Snowshoeing around Palgrave West with ThunderDog in a snowstorm, mostly off-trail. A fantastic day to be out in the woods! Some running, some trekking, and a lot of gratuitous hills that I ran up if there weren't too many fallen logs, since today is TNT day. The new Tubbs Catalysts are excellent for running on trails or reasonably even ground. When the terrain gets messy with fallen trees, or if there are sidehill slopes, they don't work as well as my MSR Denali Ascent snowshoes. So I will definitely continue to use both pairs, and I think I will use the MSRs for AR and the Tubbs for winter running training and for snowshoe racing (if I ever do any). Need to modify the Tubbs binding system, which is surprisingly awkward for a company specializing in snowshoes.

1st place in the Citizens for a Clean Caledon Christmas Party Christmas Movie & Television Trivia Contest. (That's the CCCCPCMTTC.)

Spiked all but one - the name of the elf in "Santa Clause".

Not much of a day for training, with many hours spent running errands around Toronto (yuck) and attending a meeting. The highlight was picking up my New Blue Bashmobile (Subaru Outback). Let the snowstorms come - I'm ready with AWD and heated seats!

Actually, there was a second highlight of the day - Santa's early delivery of a pair of Tubbs Catalyst running snowshoes! I went out for a short run under the full moon to test them out. They are small, but they were fine in 10 cm of loose, fluffy snow on top of the base. I'm not keen on the binding system, although I'm sure we can improve it. The running went really well. It felt almost completely natural - not the usual cowboy leg swinging that you need to do with some snowshoes. Looking forward to testing them out more. (Santa hasn't mentioned if these are supposed to be for Bent or for me, but hey, I saw them first.)

Skiing in a silent, sunny forest. :-)) I had my first big crash of the seaon, which I've been dreading because of my knee injury. Skiing is the most dangerous sport I do, as far as knees are concerned, so falling is really not an option anymore. I was coming downhill when ThunderDog stepped in front of me to sniff something. I veered - and unfortunately so did she, and my skis hit her hind feet before I could dive in the opposite direction to avoid hurting her. She was still wagging her tail as I lay there removing snow from my mouth, so I think all is forgiven. This has been a hard week for knees, as yesterday I plunged one leg into a snow-filled pit while running in the Dundas Valley. (After some squinting at my imperfect print-out, I confirmed that the pit was actually mapped, so mea culpa.) Anyway, my knee now feels a bit loose for the first time in awhile. It will be interesting to see how it feels when I go skate-skiing.

Leg strength training (thanks, JT) while watching the news. Top story: The American ambassador wants our Prime Minister to stop picking on the U.S. government for refusing to sign the Kyoto Accord, amongst other things. However, they are still allowed to criticize us for not going to Iraq.

Scouted the course for the Thomass National Team Fundraiser race. Some running, some scrambling up steep, snowy hills, and some standing around thinking hard. Out for three hours, but only counting two because I am the slowest course setter on earth. I designed the course at home first, but I always get different ideas in the field and want to try them all out. In this case, because it's a handicapped event, I over-analyzed the possible routes for each age group, thinking of specific people I know who will likely be there. Also, it's a bit nervewracking to think of desiging a course that will be run by National Team members and the Hott-Johansens. So... although I thought I'd get it done today, I will need to go back soon to finish up!

First time exploring the Dundas Valley on my own - I've always been in a race or doing a nav exercise when I've been there. What a great place to run in winter! Many trails are well-used - packed snow with decent traction - which made it weird and kinda spooky that I didn't see another person in 3 hours out there. Managed to get quite chilled when the sun set, and had to make a quick dash for Timmy's chili and hot chocolate.