Training Log Archive: Bash

Woke up this morning with a pain in my upper back that got steadily worse through the day. I'd felt a twinge in the same spot a couple of weeks ago after using free weights. It hadn't really gone away, but it was no big deal. Now it's a big deal. :-( I guess I aggravated the same muscle with yesterday's upper body workout.

Twice around the Meadowlands loop at Hardwood - the perfect place to practise skating technique without much elevation change. There were a few things to work on today:
- Pole toward the uphill side of the trail, now that I've figured out the mystery of poling on both sides.
- In 2-skate, shift weight to other ski when poles reach hips.
- Keep elbows close to body.

It was the 3rd one that nearly did me in. It was icy, and the skis didn't always go exactly where I wanted them to. While going along at a good clip, I planted one of my poles firmly into the snow just inside my ski - instead of outside where it belonged. SPLAT. Ouch... Otherwise, this went really well.

We put sticky wax on our classic skis and did all the trails in the Olympic system. As Slice pointed out yesterday, these trails are icy with some steep hills. I would also add "rutted in places" to the list for today. For the most part, it went pretty well, but I did crash hard at the bottom of a roller coaster dip when I was bringing my skis from partial snowplow to parallel position in preparation for the next uphill. It was a twisty kind of fall that I was certain involved a field appendectomy, but luckily the effects weren't lasting.

Unfortunately, my upper back pain came into play while classic skiing more than while skating. I was enjoying myself, but I went the last few kilometers with my face in a permanent grimace from the pain. I was feeling kinda down because I probably couldn't get to a chiro appointment for 3 days, although I might be able to corner Leanimal or Slice at the New Year's party, much as I hate to do that sort of thing. Then Dr. Wells miraculously appeared on the trail in front of us! After a few moments of polite chat about skiing and the holidays, I said, "Really sorry to do this on your day off, but what part of my body is hurting, and should I use ice or heat on it?" After a 10-second exam and patient interview on the trail, his theory is that I've strained my rhomboid muscle. He recommends icing it and rolling a tennis ball on it as a massage. Nice to have something that I can do for it while waiting to have a more formal appointment!

Best product name spotted in Sojourn - an outdoor store in Barrie:

iPood.

It's a foldable camping trowel.

Rodney Yee's Yoga for Flexibility with 'Bent. I liked this one. After all the skiing yesterday, it was nice to have a full-body stretch. No attempted handstands this time - phew. It was filmed in a beautiful desert location with indigo skies and red sand, but we were a little worried that he might back into a cactus during a Downward Dog. (We often run into actual downward dogs while attempting to do our Downward Dogs.)

Cross-country trek with 'Bent and ThunderDog in Palgrave West. There's a thin crust on top of soft, heavy snow - a bit of a slog at times, but the forest was beautiful, and T-Dog was thrilled to be out exploring. It's sad leaving the youthful BulletDog behind when we go out, but we can't risk damaging her knee any further. Only 10 days till her surgery, then we face the huge challenge of keeping our little faster-than-a-speeding-BulletDog from sabotaging her own recovery.

The final new DVD from my shopping trip - an intermediate Pilates workout with a body band. I've never done Pilates, so I have nothing to compare it to, but it seemed to have a similar effect to a Power Yoga workout. There was more variety in arm strength exercises, e.g. working specifically on the biceps using the band. I liked it - it's going to be nice to have a few home workout DVDs to choose from, especially shorter ones that can fit into busy days. I'd heard that Pilates provides a tough core workout, and there were a few challenging core exercises in this session - but it was a cakewalk compared to the Hard Core Conditioning DVD.

A head start on what's going to be a New Year's resolution. Time to get back to the leg strength exercises that helped me recover from my knee injury two years ago. I'm sure it's good for continued injury prevention, but more importantly, I'm noticing that my legs are less strong. I remember how good I felt in spring 2006 after I'd been doing the exercises religiously for 6 months. I want to feel like that again.
- 100 calf lifts - 1 and 2-legged, regular, pigeon-toed, V-toed
- straight leg lifts - regular, foot pointed out
- left lifts from plank

Hard to believe, but 'Bent and I had never gone XC skiing at Highlands Nordic in Duntroon, so it was high time to fix this unfortunate situation. We carpooled up with Goose, his daughter and her cousin, which made the 1-hr drive go by quickly. Great conditions for skate skiing, and Goose was kind enough to give us some coaching over the first few kilometers. I worked on poling on the opposite side from what I usually do, and it began to feel reasonably comfortable. I tried to balance on my unsteady left foot for long periods of time, and I did drills where I skied with arms like a speed skater, but no poling. I've got a long way to go, but it felt like there was some improvement today.

In between laps, we chatted with VO2Max and Brittany, who had come up for some training. The national team for the Under-23 World Champs will be selected at Duntroon next weekend, so their energy level is high - although Britt's broken leg is still healing, so she won't be racing.

Around the Red Trail - absolutely beautiful in today's foggy conditions with the trees coated in thick frost. Our grip wasn't great in the 0C temperature, but I'd expected it to be a lot worse. A little double poling practice never hurt anyone anyway! Lots of fun and much more comfortable to be back on our classic skis. Ran into Almageddon in the parking lot, arriving as we were leaving.

I was wondering when I'd be able to fit in a workout today... The opportunity presented itself earlier than expected when my car mysteriously refused to start after sitting in the garage for a few days. I finally gave up, phoned to move my lunch date back by an hour, then skied to 'Bent's office in Palgrave to pick up his van to take to Newmarket. I got the van back an hour before he was leaving work, then had a nice ski home in the twilight. The days are getting longer again - yay!

As I was leaving our place, I noticed some big boot tracks coming out of the forest toward our place. Only a few friends use that trail normally, but I doubt that any of them stopped by over Christmas. Strangers occasionally wander in, but they almost always stop at the top of the hill when they see our house, rather than continuing on. These tracks came up toward our house. Did anyone cruise by our place in the last couple of days to offer Christmas greetings?

After an extremely busy day at work, 'Bent needed to unwind, so I convinced him to try my new Rodney Yee "Power Yoga for Strength" DVD. It didn't indicate any level of ability on the package, but the DVD flashed up the subtitle "...For Beginners". We were disappointed, but it soon became clear that a beginner would find this DVD challenging, since Rodney moves quickly and doesn't do a lot of explaining. He also tossed in 2 or 3 handstand-type poses that we'll be able to do around the time that hell has a snowstorm. But we did modified versions and actually enjoyed our short pre-dinner workout a lot more than it sounds like we did!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!