Training Log Archive: Bash

Coach LD, Leanimal, 'Bent and I headed over to check out Mono Nordic in Orangeville. Nice little place! We're going to buy memberships, since they cost almost nothing, and I'd like to support the volunteers who run this community club. At first it was a high intensity workout as I chased Coach LD on her skate skis, with 'Bent running to keep up with her on his new waxless skis and Leanimal on nice waxless racing skis. I talked 'Bent into switching skis, and then *he* was the one who had to pole down hills, while I had to start herringboning up hills. He was nice enough to keep my slow skis, which gave him a great workout. Coach LD set us up with some no-poles drills where we made an effort to transfer our bounding skills to the snow. Fun!

And then the snowstorm started. Great big snowflakes the size of toonies. We're supposed to get up to 15 cm of wet snow with 50 kph winds, so the odds of a blackout in our rural area are high. We refreshed all our jugs of drinking water, turned the thermostat up a bit, brought in an extra load of firewood, showered, recharged our backup power unit, and ate snacks from the fridge (verboten once the power goes out).

Treadmill run at Boston pace. Boooring! I think this is my record longest treadmill run, since I usually find myself counting the seconds until I finally give up. I lasted a little longer this time because I was watching a movie that started out with trail runners in the credits - great! I clicked the "Info" button, and it said that the movie was about a wild animal attacking people on the Appalachian Trail. Given the bear and cougar sightings around here, I figured that ought to hold my interest. But the animal stalking people in this movie turned out to be - wait for it - a *tiger*. Lucky I wasn't planning to watch the whole thing.

Midday run on the snowy Humber Valley Trail with Slowrunner, Rocky and Leanimal. It was a nice easy pace, and in spite of feeling fatigued for the last couple of days, I felt good. I knew that the others were setting a manageable, chatty pace out of pity for my fatigue, but our running times were surprisingly good considering how easy it felt. Slowrunner carried on farther - only 4 months till her 50-miler!

Hard Core Live with Caron. A cruel amount of back work tonight.

Yoga class - 5 reps of a whole bunch of different pose changes. My bad knee keeps getting in the way of stretching other parts of my bad leg - the parts that probably need more stretching because of my bad knee. :-(

Feeling fatigued today, so I didn't run even though I'd planned to. I've had a higher-than-usual training volume over the past few weeks, I haven't been eating meals regularly, and I've always been bad about getting enough sleep.

Given that I've paid for plane tickets, hotel and rental car for next weekend's trip to Tucson, this is dumb. So... I'm making this commitment for the next 11 days until the marathon, and you are all invited to bug me about it, including 'Bent, who will have the best insight into how I'm doing:

1) In bed by 11:30 except for this Saturday, when we're having a party.
2) Three nutritious meals a day and lots of hydration in between
3) Limit training. It's too late to make much difference anyway.

Vetted the Thomass Sprint and Chase courses at Bronte Creek Park. Tiny has done a nice job of setting interesting courses! Boy, that park is stupid-expensive - $14 to get into a place that was a little spooky because it was nearly deserted and all the facilities were closed. Well, except for one conveniently placed "Jerry On The Job". I hyper-extended my knee in one of those fields with hummocks. I thought of Hammer's injury and swore loudly (no one to hear me, after all). Hope it doesn't turn into anything.

I've finally created a new category for Ski Bounding - it isn't like anything else. This was 'Bent's first night out with the Bounding Babes - KD, Rocky, Leanimal and Coach LD. It was a great session, and I think it will really help my pathetic skate skiing. 'Bent was feeling under the weather, but that didn't prevent him from getting ultra-competitive in the relay portion of the evening. We were doing well until Coach LD added a cartwheel to the mix, and after that, the only thing that kept our team in the competition was the fact that everyone was laughing so hard at 'Bent's cartwheel attempts that it was hard for them to run. Fun!