Training Log Archive: Bash

'Bent actually went skiing today! In spite of the nice snow conditions, I was not tempted in the slightest. Yoga felt good though - lots of stretching of tired muscles - mmm....

Event: Salomon Adventure Challenge - Mansfield
 

After a miserable, springlike winter, the snow began to fall five days ago, and we were treated to perfect conditions for this race - lots of powdery snow and a chilly -10C plus windchill. The Padre had mentioned that he was trying to make this year's course design more creative and strategic. He wanted to reduce the opportunity for people to just follow the leader's footprints in the snow to the CP. He also saw that skate skiing teams had a huge advantage in last year's race, and he wanted to give classic skiing teams a chance this year. I think he succeeded.

The first half of the course was a Bike/Trek section. After a crowded, jostling bike race start on a narrow, snowy road, we all rode a few kilometers toward a large, irregular, hilly block of land, then split up a bit as teams used different strategies to get 6 CPs. Three CPs were along roads, and three CPs were inland. You could drop your bike at any CP and do the rest on foot, or you could ride around to different access points and go inland to get one or two CPs from each point. At the end of it all, there was a CP at the top of a large ski hill, so there was no way to avoid riding up a long, steep hill eventually.

Road biking in the snow is not my forte, but there were other aspects of the race course that I knew would work better for me. So I was mentally prepared to watch teams go by on the road and not let it bother me too much - especially because some inexperienced racers tend to overdo it at the start of the race, and they can't keep up that pace. We didn't do too badly, mostly because 'Bent and 3PinJim were full of energy - towing me in a few places on foot and bike. I got swept up in a crowd enroute to the first off-trail CP, and we ended up descending from one steep, snowy hilltop and running up the adjacent one, but otherwise the nav went smoothly today. During the entire Bike/Trek section, we saw a lot of other teams, and had the perception of doing OK, but not particularly well. I felt slow, and couldn't breathe through my nose, thanks to my cold. My water froze early on (which it has never done), so I carried 4.4 lb of unnecessary (but oh, so necessary!) weight for the entire race.

We had to walk our bikes on Airport Rd. on our way back to Mansfield to start the ski section of the race. I was running slowly while 3PinJim took my bike. My first clue that we weren't doing so badly in the race was when Team LSN jogged past us. That inspired me to speed up, and when we hopped on our bikes for the final ride up the Mansfield driveway, we passed LSN to beat them to the transition area.

I was really surprised to see how few bikes were there. Since people used different strategies in the Bike/Trek section, it was impossible to know how we were doing. We had made a last-minute decision to switch to classic skis after seeing the race course design, which took us into ungroomed areas of Dufferin Forest. It was the most adventurous and exploratory skiing of any adventure race we've ever done. It was helpful that I'd orienteered in the area over the past year, although the orienteering map was displayed onscreen for everyone to make notes from, so it didn't give us a huge advantage. I guess the main advantage was that our experience in the area made us respect the importance of looking carefully at the O map, since it is very easy to get lost in the massive trail network.

We did the entire regular ski section with LSN, with 'Bent breaking trail most of the time. Mansfield Ski Area had opted not to groom the skate trail today, and we had 20 cm of fluffy white stuff on the trail, which made it a challenge on any kind of ski - but I'm glad we were on classics. At the end of the regular ski section (two widely-spaced CPs), teams had the option of continuing to the advanced section, which consisted of two CPs that took us further afield in two different directions. We turned left to go to the farthest one from the lodge first, while LSN turned right to go to the closer one. Since we'd been skiing around the same speed, that meant it would probably come down to route choice.

We headed to the northwest corner of Dufferin Forest, breaking trail through deep snow for much of the way, including up and down one significant hill. Then we took off our skis and carried them (mandatory gear) up a steep slope to the advanced CP. We had made it there first, but we saw Team Supplierpipeline arrive while we were there. Then we dashed back down (being careful to stay in the same footprints so we didn't make too many paths to the CP), and retraced our steps to the spot where we had left LSN. Then we went to the other advanced CP, which involved a few kilometers on a snowmobile trail, so no trail breaking, but a few good hills. 'Bent towed me up a couple of hills on skis (which worked better than I expected, except that the tow rope was too short), but 3PinJim suggested that he stop doing so, because 3PinJim was, in his words, "done". He and I had both been sharing 'Bent's limited water because our water systems had frozen. He had also worked very hard in the early stages of the race, and might not have kept up with his nutrition. So 'Bent helped him to the finish. We skied to the edge of the escarpment and plunged down a steep gully to meet a flat 2 km trail to the finish line. 'Bent put 3PinJim on tow, and we crossed the finish line while Supplierpipeline was still standing there drinking their victory champagne.

To our surprise, the Tree Huggers were in 2nd place overall of 30+ teams, coming in 5 minutes behind the team we'd predicted to win. Woo hoo!! LSN arrived in 3rd place 37 minutes later, then Milton Basement Racers (Tiny, Crash, Nosnhoj) and Salomon/Suunto (Leanimal, Phatty, STORM) crossed the finish line within a couple of minutes after them. Kudos to our friends on all three of those teams for overcoming various forms of adversity in this race and still making it to the 5-team podium. It turns out that three of the top five teams used skate skis, including 2 members of the winning team, although Salomon/Suunto mostly carried them and ran!

Fun race on a sunny, snowy day. We enjoyed the innovative course design and loved the large amount of skiing, which has played a minor role in some past winter races. It was a great group of people, and it was nice to see so many friends on the podium. It was the best-ever Tree Hugger team finish in a FAR race. :-)

Well, it seems that wading waist-deep in ice-encrusted creeks isn't the best way to shake a cold. I've regressed a bit today, and I'm tired from a short night of sleep. So... I decided to skip C3 training tonight. It was a question mark anyway, since it's so close to a race. I did this short ski instead, not so much for the training value, but to remind myself about everything to do with skate-skiing, since it still doesn't come naturally, and it needs to feel more natural in Saturday's race. So I put on and took off the equipment, climbed and descended a few hills, and generally reminded myself of what it should all feel like. For some reason, BulletDog was in a wacky, energetic mood. She ran the first 500 m with a huge fireplace log in her mouth, carrying it like it was a little stick. Then whenever I was skiing downhill, she would leap at me like the bunny in The Holy Grail. Full body contact skate skiing - the race has gotta be easier than this!

Running with Slice to Ancaster Creek for our wintry afternoon of orienteering training.

See Slice's log for an excellent report on our outing. It was interesting for me to see how much ice Hamilton got in Monday's storm. Palgrave's version of the storm had more snow. We ran through areas where weeds and shrubs were encased in "glass" - very pretty on a sunny day. The steep slopes around Ancaster Creek were more slippery than usual, making for a tough workout at times. I started out slowly, worried about aggravating my cold, which has taken a sudden - and welcome - turn for the better. Could it be the 1500 mg of Vitamin C I took yesterday?

Before we headed out on our respective courses, we admired Slice's fancy, expensive, windproof winter tights. Just as well that we did, since they didn't make it out alive. :-( Hopefully, some creative tailor can find a way to repair the damage from thorny bushes and barbed wire.

On the first course I did, I only got to 4 controls before it was time to get back to meet Slice. I wasn't really into the map, and I spent far too much time looking around for flags that were missing. In one case, I finally found the flag on an ice-encased branch lying in the snow. As I came back toward our meeting point, I crossed Ancaster Creek in a bad place. On the way across, I'd got wet up to my ankles. This time, I stepped almost waist-deep into icy water, then crossed slowly, maneuvering across using two small, somewhat stable logs. That was one of the times when I was glad to know that someone else was in the woods who knew exactly where I'd gone!

Slice and I met and decided to switch courses, and each of us found our second course went more smoothly. I did the course in reverse, visitng all controls. I'm not sure what it is about frozen feet that helped my concentration, but something definitely worked better. Unfortunately, my feet didn't thaw until after Hammer's lecture a couple of hours later - brrrrrr!

Fun afternoon of training!

Nice evening run with Etoile along the Bayfront Trail. We did the York St. stairs, then paused to read the plaque about Burlington Heights before jogging back down. The city lights and the night sky were beautiful, and the company was excellent. We had a surprise when a car came around the corner on our pedestrian/bike trail. They were driving slowly, so I don't think they were intentionally taking a joy ride - but disconcerting, nonetheless.

Step aside, Zoolander! The local paper called this morning, looking for some XC ski photos right away, so 'Bent and I did a photo shoot on the lawn before he skied to his office. "Come on, baby - work it, work it, work it!" When I mentioned to the editor that 'Bent had slept out in the back yard last night, they requested a 300-word story on the Canadian Ski Marathon to go with the photo. Now everyone in Caledon will know that my husband is crazy! (But at least I'll be getting paid for it.)

I'd planned to take ThunderDog out for a short lap before doing my "real" ski, but she was in a happy, frisky mood and absolutely refused to turn back toward home at the end of Short Bruce Loop. As a 10-year-old survivor of spinal surgery, she deserves to enjoy the days when she's feeling fit, so we skied around Palgrave West together, stopping a few times so that she could make dog angels. We visited the slightly controversial control C from the Tree Hugger race, and ruled in favour of Leanimal, Hansel et al. Beautiful, sunny day with some new snow. I love winter!! :-))

My winter AR teammates, ThreePinJim and 'Bent, are keen on skate-skiing in this weekend's race. I've been less keen because I've got many more years of classic skiing under my belt, and I haven't been able to ski at all this winter until yesterday. I thought I'd better rectify the situation, because I think I'm gonna lose this battle. After all, we're going to need some kind of secret weapon (other than ThreePinJim, of course) to challenge Team Salomon/Suunto and the Milton Basement Racers, both of whom clobbered us last year.

So I headed into the woods on my skate skis. It went reasonably well, except where it was flat or uphill or downhill. No, just kidding - the downhill parts were fine. Man, compared to now, I must have been in such good shape last Feb/March when we were doing so much skate skiing! There are muscles I'd totally forgotten about, like the ones on the front of my shin. This workout could have been level 5 intensity, but I ruined it by stopping and panting halfway up a few hills. One thing I learned is that it can be dangerous to skate ski on ungroomed trails. Twice I caught a ski in some debris and got flung onto my face, trying hard to land in a way that didn't twist my knee. The good news is that some of my technique is still there, although I sure could use another session with Coach Barbie!

JTor was right - I've been taking my healthy knee for granted and ignoring the leg strength routine that helped to make it healthy. So I watched part of the Daily Show, where Jon Stewart demonstrated how he planned to come on to Condoleezza Rice, the thought being that someone with a child would be less likely to favour sending 20,000+ new troops to Iraq.

The bad news is, I'm coming down with a sore throat and cold. We'll have to see if extra vitamin C can do the trick. Otherwise, it'll be a tough race on Saturday.

Winter is here, and let's hope it stays awhile this time! Today's storm mixed snow with ice pellets and was severe enough to close McMaster, which meant that my O training session with Slice was postponed yet again. However... it was an awesome winter wonderland in the forest around here. :-)) I used my rock classic skis, but there was enough base in most places that good skis would probably have been fine. I skied all around the THI race course and beyond, into Koturbash Woods. Here and there, I came across Crash's ski tracks. That girl is practising her skate skiing before this weekend's race! Hmmm, it's always interesting to check out the competition. The Milton Basement Racers beat us last year, so we're looking for hints on their game plan. ;-)

I've been thinking that we should stick with classic for this race, since we're relatively new to skate skiing, and it's been 10 months since we've tried it. But today, I found myself spontaneously skate skiing whenever I could, even in my crappy old skis. Those muscles are definitely not in shape, and it really took the heart rate up, but I was able to do it. So I guess we'll take both kinds of skis and make our final decision after the race course has been unveiled.

You'd think that after 10.5 years, we would know all ThunderDog's tricks, but she manages to outsmart us on a regular basis. I'd done all the usual stuff to prepare to leave her alone in the house for an hour while I skied - cleared all food away from counters and tables, closed the kitchen garbage can with velcro and turned it toward the wall, etc. But silly me, I'd forgotten the big garbage bag under the kitchen table full of party trash. Well, unfortunately she hadn't forgotten...

I'm not supposed to be home on Monday nights this semester, but today's snowstorm provided a chance to do Hard Core Monday. 'Bent was not amused, as he was planning to skip it after doing Half-Hard Core Thursday (only 20-odd minutes long) last week. I successfully embarrassed him into joining me.