Training Log Archive: Bash

Exploring the Mansfield region with Bent, Gazelle and Gazette in anticipation of next weekend's winter adventure race. A fresh layer of snow made all the trees more beautiful, and a chilly wind kept us moving at a good pace. It's been 3.5 months since I've navigated on a 1:50 topo, so it's a good thing we did this, because my brain was a bit slow to make the transition. After overshooting our initial "control", things went smoothly. It was a great day to be out with good friends. The only downer was accepting the inevitability of at least one very long, steep hill in the biking section, which we'd known about from reviewing the maps, but it was a lot worse to see it in person!

Wildlife report: 5 deer, 3 grouse, 1 Siberian Husky, 1 very upset barking poodle wearing a cute red sweater

Bent thought it would be a great day to ride the trails of Palgrave West in preparation for next weekend's adventure race, and I thought it would be better to ride on gravel roads. It turns out we were both wrong. We started through our yard toward our trails and made it about 10 meters through wet snow before giving up in despair. Then I started down our driveway and sank into mud so deep that the top of my tire was submerged.

So... we threw the bikes in the van and drove to the rail trail - which was icy in the good parts, and slushy and snowy in the bad parts. Tough riding and not much fun, I'm afraid. Good news for Rocky and Crash - the winter bike trails are all yours!!

Core and leg strength workout. I went too light on core strength last year, and I can already feel the improvement after the first couple of weeks of 2006 - but it still hurts!!

Started with 100 double-paces each of Silly Walks A, B, and C. ThunderDog kept romping back and forth in confusion, until we finally headed into the woods. We have bare patches on open south-facing hills now, but there is still 15 cm of snow on most trails. With the warm temperatures, it was like running in a Slushee. I ran a few hills, but can't really call it interval training. Next time. My knee hurt for the last 2 minutes, but was OK for most of the run.

Running through 10-15 cm of soft snow in Palgrave West. Good strength workout! About 85% on trails, but had to run into the woods a few times when BulletDog and ThunderDog headed toward some fascinating, remote, interesting-smelling sites. Knee became moderately painful over time, so it's still recovering from my pre-Christmas injury. Luckily, the pain was nothing compared to last Thursday - apparently, my knee does NOT like the steep, slick hills of Ancaster Creek.

Power Yoga for Endurance Athletes - DVD. This time my arms felt stronger, so I didn't have any crashes to the carpet. The pooches participated more than I would have liked - they particularly enjoy the Downward Dog pose. They nearly knocked me flat during one of the balance poses - the Airplane. (Which looks a lot like it sounds - that is, if an airplane had to stand on one leg.)

Inadvertent rest day, thanks to my modem crapping out and throwing a monkey wrench into most things I was supposed to accomplish today. That's the 2nd time in two months Dell has had to send me a new modem. Grrrr, technology.

I really did mean to do a strength workout today, but my sleep-deprived, over-orienteered body didn't object when a long list of projects kept me too busy to ever get around to it.

In spite of that, I had my most daunting sports experience today. In the past year, I've survived two non-stop 3-day adventure races, and I've arrived at a control to find 3 bears standing beside it. But those experiences were *nothing* compared to the dread of facing the pile of nasty laundry that Bent and I brought home from a 4-day winter orienteering training camp!!