Training Log Archive: Bash

We were hit with heavy rain and strong winds at breakfast, so we did some reading and napping followed by an energetic Inglewood vs. Palgrave Trivial Pursuit challenge in our tent. (I'd brought a box of question cards and invented a way for the game to work.) Sadly, the Inglewood team won - but they were lucky enough to get lots of Science and Nature questions! After that, we decided to warm up with some soup. It's hard to see the whitecaps on the shoals behind me in the photo, but it wouldn't have been a good time or place to be paddling.



The rain stopped in the afternoon, and Richard found a forecast predicting manageable winds with some showers tomorrow. We decided to stay put to enjoy our nice campsite, then get an early start tomorrow.



It was a great place to hang out. The next three pics are views looking in different directions from our "dining room".







We went for an evening hike where I found a rootstock that might give Valerie a run for her money!



We saw a lot of trees down like this, and we didn't remember it from other years, so we're wondering if this area was hit by an unusual storm.

Another great sunset looking toward the La Cloche Mountains.

Day 2 of our trip, and it was a beautiful morning in the Thirty Thousand Islands!



Actually, there are closer to 60,000 islands, but who's counting? I mean, really. Jan hadn't slept in 3 months due to a demanding work schedule, so we let her enjoy the tent for a couple of hours while the rest of us sat on the rocks drinking strong, black coffee, discussing the concept of sustainability and attempting to solve a few major environmental problems.



We had some more great paddling today. These are the Cross Islands - long narrow channels between small cliffy islands. Fun!



Found a huge, beautiful lunch rock. Note the handy little channel at the right for kayak parking.



A few of my routes took us through channels that turned out to be less watery than they appeared on the map. At least we were able to paddle through this one, even though the reeds were well over our heads, and we couldn't see the other paddlers for awhile.



We found one of several great campsites at the north end of Deer Island. Ours had the best harbour, but they all had great flower gardens. (It's wild iris season.) There was also a healthy population of minks here.



As forecast, the weather started to turn by Saturday evening. Tomorrow is supposed to be a small craft warning with heavy rain. Oh goodie.

Day 1 of Georgian Bay sea kayaking trip with Richard, Neil and Jan. After a quick stop in Nobel to check out the latest deals at White Squall Outfitters, we headed up to Killarney for our traditional pre-trip fish & chips feast from Herbert Fisheries, which operates in a school bus by the main dock. Then we loaded up the kayaks and started paddling down Chikanishing Creek.



The weather forecast for later in the trip was dubious - and that's always a major consideration on Georgian Bay. But today was perfect.





After a relatively short paddle, we made camp on Blockbuster Island.



We picked a scenic, windy point to keep the black flies away, but this was the one night when they overstayed their welcome. Rocky campsites are excellent for pre-dinner relaxation, however, I caught Richard reading Oral Health Journal after an especially tough week of dentistry.



After dinner, we hiked to the high point of the island where we could see a nearby group of islands that we would paddle through in the morning.



Paddling on the Bay means weaving your way through a maze of islands. Except when we travelled on the outer shore facing the open Bay, I had to concentrate hard on the map. There was an added challenge because a number of islands on the map are no longer islands in real life due to reduced water levels and growth of wetland vegetation. Meanwhile, new islands appear out of the shallow water whenever the water level dips. There were a few times when I needed to find the entrance to a small passage, and my orienteering experience sure came in handy.

Spectacular sunset tonight. I think Richard caught the moment best.

Yikes, it's 30C out there. I'd be soooo much happier with minus 30C! Last year my training took a big hit when the heat and smog got bad, so I'm trying to force myself to train indoors on the days when I'm tempted to do nothing. We haven't had the A/C on yet this year, so it's still warm in our basement training room, but at least it's not stinkin' hot!

Run off the bike. Watched Daily Show/Colbert during the two sessions.

Hot, hot, HOT. Wimp that I am, I decided to run this morning in our shady forest instead of joining Slowrunner for a high noon Crossfit run in the sunny Humber Valley. I ran mostly on trail, but did less than a km off-trail in the Wheelie Woods - good practice for orienteering. I measured a nice 400 m stretch of wide trail for speed intervals. It rises near the start, has a flattish plateau in the middle, then descends. It starts at the first BT post east of Bruce Junction and finishes at the junction between the BT and Swamp Trail. Rest periods were the jogs back to the starting point.

5 X 400 m trail intervals. (Without Slowrunner to hold me back, I was able to do 5 reps, haha.) I didn't look at my watch or even think about time, but I did try to do the last one faster: 2:17, 2:16, 2:21, 2:17, 2:11. It's fair to say that Usain Bolt has nothing to worry about!

As my "prize" for the Moraine in Focus photo contest, I just ordered the Canon 10-22 mm lens from Vistek. Time for some ultra-wide angle fun!

Paddling trainer was acting up, so I moved on.

No resting between sets of different exercises

It was sooo hot today that I thought I'd just do a short run in the FFs near dinnertime, but I felt good and ended up pushing harder than planned. About 45 sec/km faster than last week on the same hilly trail - although some of that can be attributed to feeling more comfortable with the "barefoot" feeling. Didn't step on any rocks today - yay!