Training Log Archive: Bash

LINK legs routine + some of the regular legs routine + some upper body blasting on 'Bent's machine. Need to do more upper body - I've been totally ignoring that training goal for 2007.

Thanks for the enthusiastic support of the photo contest. I received 9 entries from athletes living in three Canadian provinces (four if you count Fort Frances as being so far away as to be outside Ontario) - and also from people in the U.S. and Sweden! I will select the winners shortly.

For those of you who haven't seen all the entries, check them out! All entrants except MoeD and 'Bent put a comment on my log on Wednesday, so you can just click on their name beside the comment, then click on the "Training Log" link on their profile.

It's the 15th Anniversary of the Caledon Hills Cycling shop, and it seemed only right to go there by bike. Richard was using his good bike for the first time this season, and I hadn't touched my bike since the winter adventure race in January. I know, I should go to the basement and use our trainer all winter like the *real* adventure racers do - and I even thought about it occasionally with some guilt - but apparently I'm not that dedicated. The major thing I noticed today was that my rear end was not happy in a bike seat. It had begun to get used to the good life, but it's time to get saddle-sore again.

Initially, we had the plan to have lunch in Inglewood near the cycling shop, but the bike preparation went slowly. Then we had a couple of false starts after locking up the house, closing the garage and bribing the dogs with treats. "Aaack - my winter pedals are still on, and I can't clip in." Open the house, open the garage, greet the dogs, get the tools, change the pedals, bribe the dogs, close up the house, and go down the driveway, then "THWUP! THWUP! THWUP!" on 'Bent's bike. Arrggghhh, must get the big toolbox. Back to the house, open up, greet dogs, etc. We finally made it onto the road at 1:30 p.m. with a 90-minute ride ahead of us. Definitely too late for lunch!

The rail trail is in pretty good shape with occasional soft spots. A lot of horses have passed by and left deep hoofprints and other, um, signs of their presence. The highlight, unquestionably, was going over the new trail bridge over Hwy 10. It used to be a death-defying act to get across five lanes of speeding traffic. Great use of tax dollars, for once.

Fun time in Inglewood. I got new running clothes, so I will be inspired to go faster, obviously. I supported Salomon in honour of our friends and sponsors, Team Salomon/Suunto. Dropped in for a quick visit to Knobless and Gorgeous, where we discussed the latest updates on our plans to visit the Galapagos Islands together later this year. :-)

'Bent and I met 3PinJim at 6:15 p.m. for a trail run around the Hilton Falls Bruce Trail & Side Trail loop. This will be our last long run before the Giant's Rib Raid, and I'm pleased to report to my teammates who are reading this that I didn't injure myself in spite of large portions of trail that consisted of leaping from one pointy, moss-covered rock to another, or stepping carefully to avoid deep, runner-eating crevices.

There was supposed to be some small advantage in doing our run in similar terrain to the GRR, but the trail was so uneven that I barely lifted my eyes off the ground - and just when we got into easier terrain, it got dark, and I didn't want to push my luck with only a small beam of headlamp light standing between me and a re-sprained ankle! The trail was drier than I expected at this time of year, and when I dared to take fleeting glimpses into the open woods, many places looked dry with good visibility. However, the flat areas on top of the escarpment are great places for wetlands, and I noticed that some of them looked VERY wet.

Aside from not daring to look at much scenery, I'm very pleased with how this run went. It's my longest run since the Hudson Highlander in October, and the first time that I've had the nerve to do a training run with 3PinJim, who is an ultrarunner. I'm sure I couldn't keep up in a shorter training run when he would go faster, but tonight's pace was challenging, yet still possible. I guess that's a good sign, since we'll be doing Raid The North with him and LoTox this summer. I'll have an advantage then anyway, since I'll be carrying the map, and I can always declare an unnecessary navigation stop if I secretly need to catch my breath.

As always, 'Bent looked like he wasn't even breaking a sweat. (Although I know better, since I do his laundry.) He and 3PinJim chatted the whole time. They are both mad inventors and gear geeks, so there's always lots to catch up on.

Fun evening! And it feels great to have my major training outing of the weekend done by Friday night.

C3 Training Night - Hill intervals and faster sections.

C3 Training Night - the rest of the run. Coach Hans (not Coach Sudden) advised me to push my hips forward when I run. It improves posture and "gives you another gear because the muscles can work better in that position". It's going to be interesting to experiment with this a bit. No question that Hans (a triathlon age group world bronze medalist) has amazing running style. All his energy moves him forward - no motion is wasted.

Hard Core Thursday Live. The nastiest one was the following:
- Lie on your back with your legs straight up in the air.
- Put your hands behind your head, and lift your head and shoulders off the ground slightly. Hold.
- Keeping your left leg pointing up, lower your straight right leg until it hovers a couple of inches above the ground. Hold.
- Do about 20 crunches while holding your legs in that scissor position.
- Do the same with the other leg (but of course).

OUCH!!

Tonight's theme was holding positions for a really long time until they seemed a lot more difficult than they did at the start. Got some great hamstring stretches in. We attempted the crow pose, where only two hands touch the ground. 'Bent was looking really good, and I had it for an all-too-brief moment - then crashed my skull into the yoga mat. I think I'd better practise on our soft carpets at home.

Hey, don't forget the training photo contest finishes at midnight EST on Friday. So far, we only have 2 entries - from 'Bent (riding his 'bent) and from MoeD, who (in a radical move) posted a photo of himself actually doing the training described in his log for that day.

Since the entries are coming in so slowly, I'm going to resort to entering people myself. Here is my favourite photo of Slice training. We were in the same event, but did this crossing at night - and thus (probably fortunately) never saw the scenery.

LINK workout - just the lower body part, plus some of my old leg workout. Earlier today, K/O came over to review and correct our form on some of the exercises. I like this stuff - must do it more!

2nd week of G-TNT in Caledon. This time it was just Leanimal and me heading out onto the Humber Trail. The weather was incredible - temperature in the high teens. I was wearing my May running clothes - short-sleeved shirt and capris - and Leanimal looked at me in shock, because she was wearing her usual March running clothes, including winter tights. As it turned out, we were both overdressed. We still encountered a number of patches of ice in shady places along the trail, but this week the main story was MUD. It's great to have someone to go play in the mud with me. Good company made the time fly.

Leanimal and I are taking on contenders for the Women's North American Rogaining Championship this summer, so I'm planning to do more long runs so I don't slow her down too much. Since I have made all of my past rogaining partners sick, she is a very brave person.

I've logged the first half of the run as level 4, since it has a lot of uphills, and we ran up them all.

Returning home after our turn-around. Mostly downhill-ish or flat, although there were two steep uphills. I wasn't too sprightly on the climbs in this direction though. Gorgeous day!