Training Log Archive: Bash

Event: Giant's Rib Raid Adventure Run
 

Giant's Rib Raid 25 km Adventure Run. Like last year, we had a perfect spring day, a fun course design, and a great field of teams. One CP in Albion Hills, then we headed down Duffy's Lane to the next part of the Humber Valley Heritage Trail.

The next section was the Matrix, but this time we only had one control card per team, so it was harder to split up. Although I'm usually the main navigator on the team, 'Bent and Hingo are better runners, so they shared the nav for the Matrix while I ran the trail. (In retrospect, I should have run the roads in both directions because it was shorter, but I really did enjoy my trail run.) It seemed like a few teams were expending a lot of energy trying to find each other in the Matrix so they could swap the control card around different team members. Our simple strategy worked well, and we were with several top teams as we left the Matrix. I did regret missing the nav, but I'll be taking those controls down, so I'll get to visit all the CPs eventually.

After that, it was fun to check out some nice places that are close to home that we've never visited before. I'd like to go back and do more exploring. Lots of sidehill running, so several good blisters tonight. I did a couple of face plants over some fallen, rusty fences - one of which left me dazed for a few minutes, but still staggering along. The only control we seriously blew was 10C - a bit of inattention. We were in the right vicinity though, and only lost a few minutes wandering re-entrants. Other than that, we could have fine-tuned our routes here and there, but we hit most of the controls without much trouble. I was really proud of the final advanced section - a contours-only section of map where I led the way, and we finally passed the all-male team we'd been leapfrogging all day. :-)

Big congrats to MrPither, Griz and ThePiller for finishing an awesome, close 2nd place. Rocky, Crash and Shannon made a spectacular debut to navigation racing by finishing the Regular course in plenty of time, finding all the controls along the way. It was excellent to race with 'Bent and Hingo, with all of us reasonably healthy and uninjured, for once!

Based on preliminary results, we were 8th overall - our best ever finish in an adventure run. :-) Too bad 'Bent and I can't do Raid The Hammer this year - it'll be our first missed adventure run since 2002. But I'm sure that the charms of New Zealand will make up for it - a bit.

Oh yes, I'd said I was sure that some part of my right leg would hurt after the race, but I didn't know what it would be. Turns out it's the back of my knee, very painfully chafed from my knee brace. Ironic or what?

Insufficient warm-up followed by insufficient cooldown.

Rest day before the Giant's Rib Raid. I'm regretting doing a new stretch yesterday. I'd always thought the IT band was just a knee thing, but that is not the body part I've been asked to stretch. The "bottom" line is that it hurts to sit down today - ouch.

My right leg has been so fickle lately that I'm certain something will hurt after running 25 km off-road, but I don't have a clue what it will be.

While watching the Daily Show. They had fun with Condoleezza Rice's comment that the U.S. had probably made "thousands" of tactical errors in Iraq.

Trail run in Palgrave West with 'Bent and BulletDog. Maybe a bit fast for a tempo run - more like my sprint race pace, with a few brief "intervals" where I raced past 'Bent just for fun. (Didn't stay ahead for long, though.) It was such a rainy day that we weren't inspired to run for long.

Definitely need a longer cooldown for faster runs. No time today though - had to be in downtown Toronto for 'Bent's dental class reunion, preceded by an all-too-rare, but always expensive visit to MEC. :-)

Around Palgrave West with both dogs. I was surprised at how fast they wanted to go, since ThunderDog loves to stop and sniff. They instigated a couple of unplanned level 5 intervals when they ran off to track down interesting smells. I managed to catch up with ThunderDog, but BulletDog beat me to the source of one nasty aroma, and rolled in it before I could stop her. Then they both rolled in some deep mud puddles like little flying pigs, then dove into a pond for a swim. Sigh... I'd planned some hill intervals, but ended up doing doggie baths instead. But hey, they had a good time.

Now that the snow is gone, I added some strides to the session today. To my surprise, they induced a new type of form exercise - a pale imitation of Hammer's famous grimace. I dunno - it sure seems to work for him, so I don't think I'll try to get rid of it.

While catching up with American politics via the Daily Show. I added hand weights to a few of the exercises today - also a new IT band stretch that Dr. LeAnimal recommended.

Just saw the Flying Pig Long course results from Sunday, and I'm feeling more positive, even though I made a real mess of things out there for a little while. I was 6th of 21 women on the Green course, which isn't nearly as bad as I'd expected. I was 29th of 73 Green course racers overall, so the men really put me in my place in this event! My nasty error lost me at least 10 minutes, but if I could have avoided it, I would still have the same rank among the women - the others are simply WAY more talented than I am. But... in saving 10 minutes, I would have passed 13 of those men. Next time!! :-)

Trail run around Palgrave West with ThunderDog. It was a cold day with steady flurries most of the day. This outing was intended to be a light test of my knee, which went squirrelly last night again - not entirely unprovoked. I'd been to the sports chiro for a treatment using different techniques that loosened up various body parts from my right foot up to my hip. I felt fine until kneeling on ceramic tile to build a fire in the fireplace - then when I got up, the freshly-loosened parts of my knee had rearranged themselves in a new, totally unacceptable manner. With a bit of Vitamin I and ice, it looks like I should be OK for the Giant's Rib Raid. I hate the fact that my right leg seems so fragile these days.

Unplanned rest day - my "to do" list was just too long. Not that it stopped me from getting injured - sigh... For some reason, my knee feels funny even to walk on. I'm hoping that I'll wake up tomorrow and it'll be gone. (Not the knee, of course - just the pain.)

Hard Core Monday. 'Bent and I were both feeling a bit blah, but managed to talk ourselves into doing our weekly session. The DVD must be working, because all those crunches are starting to feel manageable. Maybe I'll have to move to twice a week (yikes).

I almost forgot to mention the most important victory of the weekend - the coveted GHO Flying Pig award. This is an actual battery-operated Flying Pig, which will be marked with the winner's initials and passed to a new individual each year based on their "distinguished performance" at the FP meet. There were good arguments to support giving this award to any one of our GHO members at the Pig, and Hammer made a particularly eloquent speech explaining why he felt he was worthy, then attempted to bribe the judge with a Roll-up-the-rim-to-win donut coupon. However, in the end, it was MrPither who prevailed, thanks to:
- his Sprint victory
- his muddy, face-first slide to the finish control in the relay
- wallowing in the vegetation enough to get a thorn in his eye during the Long race (which he wisely didn't finish)
- doing all of this at his very first Pig meet.