Training Log Archive: Bash

It seemed like a good idea when someone suggested it at the St. Patrick's Day party... so today 'Bent, BulletDog and I joined Adidas Pete, Leanimal and The Bakes for a long slow distance trail run from our place northwest of Palgrave to their place in downtown Bolton. I started the run with every intention of turning around after 45 minutes and returning home to finish packing for my early morning flight. I also expected that they would have me gasping for O2 by then. However, at the 45-minute point, Leanimal and The Bakes decided that the pace needed to drop, so I decided to continue with them to Bolton after all. Adidas Pete and 'Bent went off ahead and burned a few more calories. Running was a real mix of snow, treacherous ice, mud and nice dry trail. There were several spectacular wipe-outs in our group, and luckily none of them was mine. I felt surprisingly good out there after the first hour, and was strong at the end. (My problem with orienteering is that there is no appropriate event for someone who takes 2 hours to warm up.) I guess I'm ready for the Giant's Rib Raid now!

I asked Dr. Leanimal about my recent hip pain flare-up when I did hill intervals. Since the only previous occurrence was during the 2005 Raid The Hammer, I'd suspected it was related to my knee injury in some way. It turns out that the pain is in the muscle at the upper end of the IT band, so it is all connected to the knee, which makes perfect sense. Apparently it is hard for people to stretch that muscle through exercise, and it can be more effective to do physical things to loosen it up, e.g. rolling a tennis ball or a foam roller over the muscle. Interesting... and glad to hear there is something simple that could help.

Brisk cooldown trek through Bolton after leaving the Humber Valley Heritage Trail.

The orienteering shoe was on the other foot today, as 'Bent, BulletDog and I took Crash and Rocky into Palgrave CA for some navigation coaching to help get them ready for the Giant's Rib Raid. They are both excellent cross-country runners, strong competitors and comfortable in the woods, so they will be awesome orienteers once they get a bit more practice. We just focussed on the basics today. By the end, we were able to give them interval starts to the next control, confident that we would all find each other again. For the last leg, they even decided to test-run different route choices to see which was better. Good work!

We caught a distant glimpse of George of the Caledon Navigators, running with a map. I don't think I've ever run into someone else practising orienteering. He and his wife Janet are new to the sport, and finished last week's Thomass after the cut-off, so it was great to see him out there working on his skills again this weekend.

It looked like a nice, sunny winter day, but it was bitterly cold out there. My fingers are still chilly.

Running to Palgrave CA and back. Whenever we had trail sections with good traction today (somewhat rare, actually), I focussed on MrPither's advice of driving the knees forward. It felt like it should make a difference.

Did Caron Shepley's "Power Yoga for Endurance Athletes" DVD to try out my new princess-purple yoga mat. I should do this routine more often because it's good for balance and stretches almost every muscle, even though it doesn't get my heart rate up. My attempts at yoga push-ups are still rather feeble and inevitably result in a face plant. And that's where the new yoga mat comes in...

While watching the Daily Show.

And now it's time to go out for the evening and sip some Bailey's Irish Cream. Happy St. Patrick's Day to all! :-)

With some strides added, now that most of the ice is gone from our driveway.

It's almost spring, so it's time to get running for real. I drove to Coolihan's Sideroad, a quiet country road bisecting Glen Haffy Conservation Area. It has a long, steady uphill grade with a nice steep bit around the middle. I measured a distance of just over 1 km, then did three repeats of down + up. Each hill ascent was a little faster than the previous one. I felt great aerobically and my knee was fine, but unfortunately, my hip began to hurt. This happened for the first time at Raid The Hammer, and it was excruciating by the end. I assumed that it must have something to do with my favouring my damaged knee when I run - and apparently, this hasn't gone away. So... I may be limited to relatively short runs. I'll have to visit Thumbs-of-Death and see what he thinks.

The good news is that only a couple of years ago, it would have been a huge news flash if I'd been able to run 6.5 km without stopping, even on the flats.

It's been a long time since I've run somewhere where I could focus on running style, so today I thought about:
- Pumping the arms straight forward
- Rear leg push-off. (Like the treadmillers, those of us who run in low-traction conditions all winter don't get much practice doing this.)
- Good posture. (When Etoile sees me running, she says, "C'mon - titties up!")

We often talk about which hills would be good for hill training, and I'm not sure why we haven't come to this spot before. At this time of year when the trees have no leaves, it has one of the most awesome views on this side of Caledon. In 50 minutes on this stretch of road, I saw 4 vehicles, and the same horse went by twice, but otherwise I was spared the usual fog of toxic road dust that we get on busier dirt roads in our area. The Bruce Trail crosses the road at the top of the hill I was running, so there is lots of potential to build a nice longer run.

Orienteering at Hilton Falls West with Hammer and MrPither. I had mixed feelings going into this session. Every time I step onto this map with its sea of lookalike rock features and puny 2.5 m contours, my ability to match map to terrain decreases by 50%, my IQ decreases by 60%, and my confidence in my nav decreases by 90%. That's bad enough when I'm alone, and I wasn't sure I'd enjoy sharing my incompetence with anyone else. On the other hand, I can only improve by continuing to work at the things that frustrate me, and with the 2006 North Am Champs happening nearby, it's worth becoming familiar with this type of terrain. And who better to run with than the NAOC course setter?

Hammer allowed me to lead most of the way today, with considerable useful discussion enroute. I usually (but not always) got us into the control circle, but once there, I was unable to choose the correct feature about half the time. If NAOC has any micro-O, I'm in trouble big time! Fortunately, in a race, I can scamper around adjacent boulders or cliffs looking for flags, but that strategy definitely lacks finesse, and it would be nice to do better than that.

For obvious reasons, today was a good day to practise relocation techniques - and also to try to relax, take a deep breath, and have more confidence in the things I know for sure, rather than spiralling into complete confusion unnecessarily.

An example of the latter:
"What is that feature?"
"Well, it might be this hill."
"What else could it be?"
"Um, I guess there's nothing else it could be."
"Then it IS that hill." (Unspoken: "You fool!" ;-) )

It was great training for me (not so much for Hammer, I'm afraid) - also a good opportunity to practise running through this ankle-busting terrain on a day when a fresh dusting of snow made everything nice and slippery!

Leg strength exercises while watching The Daily Show.

You know you're having a bad day when... the Hard Core Conditioning workout is one of the best, most fun things that happens to you. Sigh...

Well, back to my flooded basement now.