Training Log Archive: Bash

THOMASS orienteering series - Walker Woods - a fun race course by Bob Miller, and a better-than-usual turnout from the adventure racing community. The woods were mostly open and fast, with a few areas where logging debris made the footing treacherous.

It turns out that yesterday's 24 km fast trek on the heels of Thursday night's tough workout was a bit more of a warm-up than I needed. My muscles felt fatigued throughout. I pushed as hard as I could, but I can only call it Level 4 intensity because I couldn't go fast enough to raise my heart rate to its highest intensity range. In spite of that, I was in or near the lead approaching the end of the 2nd Thomass Box, thanks to my generous age/gender handicap. But then - sigh - I made a 4-5 minute parallel error when I entered an open area and left it by the wrong trail. Looking back, I don't know what I was thinking, and that's because I wasn't thinking a darned thing. It seemed easy, so I didn't bother looking too hard at the map. And then for some reason, I got it into my head that when I emerged onto the final stretch of trail, it would be one long descent to the finish control, so it was a kick in the stomach to see a steady final ascent before the downhill section. I guess you could say I ran up that last hill, but it sure felt like slow-mo.

Top woman today and 8th overall. 'Bent finished just ahead in 7th place, but he'd visited one more control than he needed to, so he could have done even better. He denies it, but he's becoming much stronger at orienteering.

Great job by Leanimal in her 1st Thomass race, placing 4th overall - and she could have won it if we'd known that she could have taken an extra handicap point because it's her 1st season!

Phatty, Leanimal and 'Bent waited patiently as I completed some retail therapy at Running Free. In keeping with my goal of running some road races, I'd decided to buy road running shoes. This meant that my feet and running style needed to be analyzed with and without shoes. I'd never had that done before, so it was interesting to learn that I have a neutral running form, which is apparently a good thing. So now I just have to figure out how to make it a faster neutral running form!

Checking control locations for the Tree Hugger race. At dusk, I was horrified to discover a huge amount of garbage dumped in thick forest in Palgrave West, not far from Crash's place. There was also a jacket lying there beside some plastic beer glasses. At first, it looked like a person was sleeping there, and I wondered if I'd stumbled onto a homeless person's campsite. On second glance, it looked like a body was wrapped in dark plastic, then I realized that it was just an oversized garbage bag with an unfortunate shape. Throughout all of this, I was mentally calculating the fastest route to Crash's house - eek.

Leanimal, Phatty and STORM of Team Salomon/Suunto invited us to join them for a long training trek this afternoon, so 'Bent, BulletDog and I got some great exercise today. These top adventure racers are all young, fit and long-legged, so I found myself breaking into a light jog from time to time to keep up, and breathing hard on some of the hills. 'Bent had no trouble, and BulletDog ran big circles around us all. (It's her 4th birthday tomorrow, so this hike was part of her celebration.)

We walked from our place to the north end of Glen Haffy Conservation Area, stopping just before Hwy 9, then doing a figure 8 loop within Glen Haffy before returning home on the Bruce Trail Side Trail.

This was half the length of last weekend's trek, but I think it probably produced more training benefit, since it didn't push my body so close to the limit. I worked hard, but I'm planning to run an orienteering race tomorrow morning, which I couldn't have done after our 50 km trek.

We've got another couple of loops picked out for the future. Hockley Valley will be great when we're ready to push hard on big hills.

We were happy to learn today that Storm The Trent is happening this year, since we hadn't seen anything on the web site. Unfortunately, the FAR spring Adventure Challenge has been scheduled for the weekend before Storm's traditional weekend, then ESAR is two weeks later. So once again, we'll have a feast of AR in May, followed by a long famine.

BulletDog and I checked a few control locations for next weekend's Tree Hugger party race. The winner is going to have very wet feet and a lot of burrs to remove. I'm not sure I can be as mean as that, so I may change the design to avoid the area with the nastiest vegetation. Avoiding wet feet will be impossible, unfortunately - at least for the more competitive racers.

We started too late and ended up returning home in the dark. Wisely, I'd taken a headlamp. Foolishly, I'd taken a dark brown dog. But we both made it back somehow, and it only took an hour in front of the TV to remove the burrs from everything I was wearing.

After last night's C3 workout, I had a pleasantly fatigued feeling in my muscles today, especially around my hips where we did major stretching in the yoga class. There wasn't any feeling of sore muscles at all. Interesting that I haven't felt like this very often. Usually if I feel anything the day after tough exercise, it's pain! I guess everything was well controlled, and we stretched out our muscles as we went along to avoid the damage that causes soreness. It wouldn't have been a good day for running though - I'll have to remember that when I'm preparing for races.

Speaking of races, we're only five days into 2007, and already my racing goals need to be re-evaluated. The draft FAR schedule came out today, and the only Raid The North 36-hr adventure race in central Canada conflicts with the Canadian Orienteering Champs. Assuming that we can pull together a team, we'd choose RTN, but I'll be disappointed to miss the COCs, especially the cool Night-O race (not part of the Champs). Maybe 'Bent and I can go to Barebones instead. Lots of fun last year, and it's being held in scenic Canmore this year!

C3 training night coached by Barrie Shepley. Road running with moderate hill intervals for about half the time we were out. I set my new $3.50 MEC Turtle LED to "flash" and looped it onto my jacket zipper. It was interesting to watch cars steer WAY clear of me. I really should have got the red Turtle LED to warn cars coming from behind, although I'm not sure what I could attach it to.

Hard Core Conditioning - a live class with the actual Caron Shepley, instead of the usual DVD. When I mentioned this to an Ironman/adventure racer friend today, he wrote back: "Caron is a whole lot of mean wrapped up in a nice, smiley little package!" I think Caron would appreciate that - I must tell her. :-) She played that evil trick again where we got to the last set, then just as we were about to collapse to the floor, she made us hold whatever uncomfortable position we were in while she started counting down again from some ridiculously high number. Very cruel, but it feels SO virtuous once the class is over.

Power Yoga class with Caron. Not as evil as the core class, but there were a few tough moments. When we were doing a balance pose (for a horribly long time), she mentioned that these poses improve foot strength and prevent injuries that may affect various joints in your leg. I'd never thought of yoga balance exercises as being about anything but balance, but now I'm a lot keener on them because they can be part of the solution for fixing my gimpy ankle.

While watching the Colbert Report. Guest was Deepak Chopra, promoting his book "Life After Death". He says that anyone who is going to die should buy it. This was just supposed to be a warm-up for the trainer, but I was really in the mood to run. Too bad I got back from downtown Toronto so late in the day. A trail run would have been nice.

I tried one of 'Bent's Christmas presents - a Spinervals DVD. I liked it but found it really hard, so I only made it about 2/3 of the way through - and I was sweating buckets. 'Bent tells me that our trainer increases the resistance as you go harder, so I shouldn't have used the gear ratios suggested in the DVD because they would be too hard on our trainer. Boy, was I glad to hear THAT! I think the Spinervals workout will work well eventually - like the Hard Core Conditioning DVD, which I only finished on my 3rd try. I really feel an improvement in core strength after a year of the HC workout. I've never worked very hard to speed up my cycling, so there's nowhere to go but up!

Whenever our adventure racing team, the Tree Huggers, evaluated our strengths and weaknesses, one of our top strengths was our pure joy in shopping for AR gear. (No, our athletic ability didn't make the list.) Thanks to the bad influence of some recent Attackpoint discussions (I won't name names, but YOU know who you are), today was one of those days. I bought some new running shirts that are unlike my existing shirts, in that they don't have any holes or catches or mud stains. Maybe I'll put a couple aside for non-bushwhacking purposes, so I don't look like a homeless person whenever I go out with regular runners.

My big impulse purchase was an iPod Shuffle, and I totally blame Attackpoint!! I've never run with a Walkman or any sort of music, and we've got dial-up Internet that doesn't lend itself to MP3s. But... it was just so CUTE. Other than our puppies, it may be the cutest thing I've ever bought. (Not that the puppies are "things", but they sure are cute.) I figure that an iPod will help with my 2007 goal to do more running races, although that is really just a feeble rationalization.

My highest heart rate of the day occurred in the food court of the Eaton Centre when I realized that I'd dropped my wallet while taking my lunch tray to the trash bin. I probably dallied 90 seconds, sorting the garbage into appropriate recycling containers, before I realized that my wallet was gone. Instant max heart rate as I raced back and - miraculously - found it lying there untouched, surrounded by the Boxing Week crowd. Phew, my heart rate went up again now just thinking about it. I guess I could have sold the iPod to someone at a discount to pay for a cab back to Palgrave (but only barely).

And today it's time to set some 2007 Racing Goals...

In 2006, I started a transition away from adventure racing as my main sport. I still love AR, but there aren't as many races around here as there used to be, and most of our teammates have moved on in their busy lives. I still haven't figured out what I'm transitioning to, so it's tough to set meaningful goals. I just looked at the racing goals I set for 2006, and actually, they didn't go too badly. I wish my New Year's training resolutions had gone as well as that, but unfortunately my record was only 50/50 on them. I'll have to work harder this year!

For the record, here were my 2006 racing goals:
1) Top 3 in women's category of Thomass winter orienteering series (finished 2nd)
2) Medal in Canadian Orienteering Champs (gold, silver & bronze, plus a surprise silver & bronze at the North Am Champs, with much thanks to Coach Hammer)
3) Win female division of North Am Rogaining Champs (Yup - thanks to my ringer partner, Backwoods Wallace)
4) Top 3 in age group in a 25+ km trail race (Nope, not even close!!)

I hadn't set it as a goal, but I had a great time at the Hudson Highlander 25 km orienteering race near New York City, and it felt like an accomplishment just to be there on the same race course with so many well-known, extremely competent orienteers - most of whom finished a LONG time before I did!

Sport Goals for 2007 (not much different from 2006, but I'm not calling them "racing goals" this time)

1) Adventure Racing - Complete at least one long multi-sport adventure race (24+ hrs) and several shorter ones. No podium goals, but it would be nice to win the female solo category in something. The most important thing in AR at this point is to have FUN, which means that 'Bent and I will probably try a variety of different events.
2) Orienteering - Medal in an event at COCs. Race F-Elite in a few A meets. Learn more about mapping. Play more Catching Features.
3) Running - Top 3 in age group in a 25+ km trail race (where there are more than 3 entrants in my category!) Do more running races - mostly on trail, but possibly a road race or two, just because they are easier to find.
4) Rogaining - Top 3 in category in two 24-hr rogaines. Continue growing the "GHO Long" Rogaining programme.
5) Do more outdoor adventures that aren't races, e.g. backpacking, canoe trips, fun training sessions. 'Bent and I used to do lots of this stuff, and we don't want to lose touch with it.

Some New Year's training resolutions:

1) Strength training - min. 1 hr/week. Continue emphasis on leg and core strength, but add back some upper body work.
2) Improve training quality. I'm not sure of all that will be involved, but I'm reading about periodization again, and I know that I will need to get serious about intervals. The main problem with planning a training program is that the local AR companies won't give us any hints as to when their events will be, so I don't have any idea when I should aim to peak. Grrrr.
3) Continue to work on technical orienteering skills.
4) 500 hrs total training in 2007
5) Improve ankle proprioception so I can stop wearing the brace.
6) Get weight down to target - and stay there!

'Bent and I hiked around Palgrave East and West to give ThunderDog and BulletDog a well-deserved New Year's treat. They've been very patient with us over the past few busy days.

Did most of the Power Yoga DVD, but skipped the core exercises in anticipation of our dedicated core strength session. Felt great to stretch muscles that are still a bit tight from our 50 km trek Friday night.

Inspired by Valerie Meyer doing Boot Camp at 8 a.m. on New Year's Day - and ashamed that we slept in for today's 10 a.m. C3 run, 'Bent and I felt that we had to do our first Hard Core Monday of the year. Phew - it's gotten easier, but it never gets easy!

I started on AP in March 2005, so I can't compare 2005 vs. 2006. Instead, I compared my first 12 months on AP (3/05 to 3/06) with the 2006 calendar year. Although there's a bit of overlap, some trends showed up in the most recent 12 months:

- Almost 50% less time spent adventure racing. This wasn't a conscious choice - it happened because fewer long races were available. Last year, the main sport I trained for was overnight and multi-day AR. Now I'm not sure *what* my main sport is supposed to be. I'd love to focus on long races, but does it make sense to train for a sport that barely exists in central Canada anymore? Sigh...

- The decrease in AR time meant a decrease in overall training hours, but I still hit my goal of 500+ hrs.

- Although I increased my strength training, I didn't hit my goal of 52 hrs, which was disappointing. On the bright side, 'Bent and I both feel a big improvement in core strength after doing the Hard Core Conditioning DVD most weeks. I really needed help in that department.

- Lack of snow meant much less skiing and snowshoeing. Boo, hiss.

- Paddling training decreased because Bill Trayling's pool paddling classes are no longer offered. Another boo, hiss!

- Trekking time is unusually high because of our New Zealand trip.

2006 TRAINING (compared with 1st year on AP)
Orienteering - 146.5 hrs (+13%)
Adventure Racing - 93 hrs (-49%)
Running - 72.5 hrs (-6%)
Cycling - 54.5 hrs (+3%)
Trekking - 50 hrs (+194%)
Strength - 44 hrs (+38%)
XC Skiing - 42 hrs (-32%)
Paddling - 16 hrs (-45%)
Snowshoeing - 8 hrs (-50%)
Yoga - 6.5 hrs (+225%)
Other - 3 hrs

TOTAL - 536 hrs (-10.5%)