Training Log Archive: Bash

Thomass Bronte

Thomass Sprint at Bronte Creek South. Hammer tested out his new idea for reducing following in Thomass winter races. It involved the use of one or more 2-control butterfly loops originating at a particular control number in the middle of the race. The 2 controls for each loop were selected by the runner from a group of 8 lettered (as opposed to numbered) controls. The total required number of controls depended on age and gender, e.g. I had to visit 4 controls (2 loops) and 'Bent had to visit 6 controls (3 loops). M21 runners visited all 8 controls in 4 loops. After visiting as many of the loop controls as we needed to, we continued to the rest of the numbered controls.

One of 'Bent's goals for the day was to run by himself without being influenced by other runners, and he was very pleased with this loop system. In Thomass races, I'm not usually in the part of the pack where following is a big factor, so the main difference for me was seeing more of the other runners, which made for a more social race! A couple of infrequent orienteers came to see me before the race because they thought they were in over their heads, but once we walked through some examples on the map (which, thankfully, we got in advance), they were OK with it, and they did fine in the race.

I was feeling slo-o-ow and not overly competitive. I ran with AdventureGirl! for a little while and helped to haul her over an icy stream. She was the youngest-ever Thomass finisher today, and she's darned speedy too!

Thomass Chase. Our times in the sprint determined when we would start in the Chase, about an hour later. The runners with better results started earlier, with start times separated by the same interval as our sprint times, up to a 30-minute max. Apparently, my slow sprint wasn't too bad, so I was one of the early runners to start.

Considering that there are virtually no hills at Bronte Creek, this was a very physical race, with many routes crossing bumpy, tussocky fields filled with tangled weeds interspersed with ice covered pools. It was a runner's course, with a couple of long, flat legs where people streamed past me as I galumphed along at my usual slow pace. The Thomass Box used the same "loop" rules as the Sprint. The loops were relatively short, but the navigation was quite technical there, and I made a couple of Bozo errors. I was saved by my age/gender handicap, however, which allowed me to leave that tricky area sooner than a lot of people. I managed to squeak out 2nd place female, just behind Marianna W, last year's overall series winner.

I felt pretty stupid in parts of this race! If you're weak at reading vegetation (as I am), Bronte Creek is a great place to practise, since there is very little forest and hardly any contours. If you're not good at visualizing the shapes of thickets, you are (i.e. I am) in big trouble.

Overall, a fun event - always interesting to try something new! We also had a great GHO Christmas party following the race. Lots of yummy food (first sluglike pig-out of the season), great Secret Santa gifts, and the infamous GHO GHO GHO awards for people who did dumb things in 2006. I'm on a roll, with two awards in two consecutive years. The story behind this year's "It Wasn't Meant To Be" award is found in my Feb. 5 AP log entry.

Not enough snow to ski, and we didn't want to run because we've got two orienteering races tomorrow, so 'Bent and I decided to ride our bikes to Caledon East to buy food for the GHO potluck Christmas party.

It was -1C and sunny, with a fairly stiff west wind, i.e. a headwind most of the way to Caledon East. The rail trail was surprisingly bone rattling with a small depth of snow and lots of footprints. The ride home felt much easier, since we had a tailwind and we could ride in our previous tracks. Although it was great to be out on a nice winter afternoon, I'm still not a convert to winter biking.

I tried SO hard not to get cold toes again, but I failed miserably. I wore light synthetic socks inside winter-weight Sealskinz (neoprene with light fleece lining), then put neoprene covers over my bike shoes. The best I can say is that my toes weren't freezing quite as painfully as last weekend after the first hour, but it was uncomfortable. So I tried sticking chemical hand warmers (not the thinner, stick-on toe warmers) between my socks, and that was a disaster. They were too large, so my toes were all pins and needles within 20 minutes. I think they also need some oxygen to keep the chemical reaction going, so they cooled off a bit. When I stuck them in my pocket for the rest of the ride home, they warmed right up again. I'm sure I had better luck with the toe-specific warmers, so I'll try them another time.

Bottom line... I think the rigid, relatively tight bike shoes are a big part of the problem - reducing circulation and free movement. I didn't find the clipless pedals to be a big advantage, since I sometimes got snow jammed in them and had to fight to get clipped in. So I'm switching to my old pedals and toe clips. That's the configuration we use for winter adventure racing anyway, since it makes for warmer feet and faster transitions. My feet are usually fine in winter races when I'm wearing wool socks and Goretex running shoes without neoprene covers.

Someone just alerted me to the elite rankings lists on the COF web site. Through some miracle of modern mathematics, I was ranked 15th female orienteer in Canada in August, although I've now dropped down 10 positions, which is starting to approach something more reasonable. All I can say is... how do we get more women out to compete at A events (and thus be accounted for in the rankings)?!? Knowing the calibre of women out there, I should never make it into the top 25 nationwide.

By the way, you gotta love the fact that Katta Smith is ranked #1 in a year where she had a baby. Wow!!

First ski of the year! 'Bent and I put on our rock skis this morning and took the pooches out for a loop in Palgrave West. The ski conditions might best be described as "borderline possible". It was a gorgeous sunny day, and the dogs made their first snow angels of the season. I'd intended to go out with 'Bent for a second loop, but my legs were surprisingly weary after last night's workout, so he and BulletDog went on their own. Hopefully, taking it easy today will leave me with more energy for the weekend. After all, it's only been a few days since I was seriously dehydrated.

As of today, we know of 5 people who became ill from last weekend's infamous sushi lunch. We now know that it couldn't have been food poisoning, but it was probably connected to a sick restaurant worker. My sister-in-law flew to Alberta on Monday and managed to make her mother and sister sick out there. I've now reported our little outbreak (maybe norovirus) to Toronto Public Health. Hey, I've always wanted to be a statistic.

C3 running session on a very chilly night in Caledon East, coached by Barrie Shepley. It was slippery out there - I should have worn my Ice Bugs. I was pleasantly surprised to be near the front of the crowd - although far behind the pace of a couple of speedy folk including Hans Porten, a 50-year-old reigning world bronze medalist in triathlon! It's nice to run with other people, but even in this quiet subdivision, it freaked me out to have cars around, especially on a dark evening with icy conditions. However, considering that an idiot hunter shot (and killed) a hiker wearing a red shirt in a public forest less than 10 km from our place last month, perhaps I should take my chances with the cars.

After months of doing Hard Core Mondays with our DVD, I finally attended one of Caron Shepley's Hard Core Conditioning sessions in person. Just like the DVD, she's able to keep smiling the whole time, looks fabulous with nary a hair out of place, does almost 100% of the exercises with us, doesn't break a sweat, and never gives the impression that she is doing hard work. She has developed several tough new exercises that will be featured on her upcoming sequel Hard Core DVD. Worst of all, she has developed an evil habit of counting down from "8 more, 7 more..." until she gets to "1 more", and just when you're ready to flop to the ground in relief, she makes you hold the final awkward position for awhile, then finally starts counting again "And HOLD for EIGHT and SEVEN and SIX...". Ouch! Glad I'd done her Core DVD before, or else it would have turned me into a helpless pool of Jello.

Power Yoga for Endurance Athletes was the second part of the class, and it's also another Caron Shepley DVD that we own, although we haven't done it nearly as often. I recognized a number of things from that DVD, but once again, there was an additional degree of difficulty in the live class. I was relieved to see that most people were unable to do yoga push-ups - high plank position, dropping to low plank, then returning to high plank without touching tummy to the ground. I think Caron may have been the only woman there who pulled it off - wow. The one that gave me the most trouble was a long balance routine where we started on hands and knees, then did all kinds of stuff with our right arm and right leg not touching the ground. At first, I thought it was a mistake. SURELY she meant to say "right arm and LEFT leg". But sadly, no...

A fun evening all around, and nice to train with a group of motivated people.

Nice to feel human again! It'll be awhile before I can face sushi. Unfortunately, I didn't lose lots of weight after all. :-(

This was just a quick run around the woods at dusk. Gotta love that cold air! 'Bent XC skied to work this morning, but it warmed up during the day, so I'm afraid he's going to have to run home.

While watching the Daily Show. Since returning from NZ, I can feel definite - and much needed - improvement in strength.

Had great plans for this brisk, sunny day, but my sister-in-law and I have come down with what may be food poisoning related to Saturday's sushi. Hardly seems fair, since I skipped the all-you-can-eat sushi lunch to go running, and only ate a few small pieces of take-out that 'Bent brought back for me. Neither she nor I even ate any raw seafood, and she only had vegetarian sushi. Sigh... 'Bent did the Hard Core Conditioning DVD downstairs tonight, and it is tough to even *listen* to an abdominal exercise routine when you're feeling sick! To make up for it, he brought me a thermos of the salty mushroom broth that cured Tiny's tummy at the Raid Endurance Aventure, and we'll see if it works.