Training Log Archive: Bash

Thomass Kick-off at Guelph Junction. More of that perfect spring weather we've been getting this fall. Nice to see lots of people out! It was a fun and very complex course. Counting the start and finish, there were 38 different locations marked on an 8.5X11 map at 1:7500 scale - and the course was confined to half the map! It was a great test for my fancy Swedish orienteering glasses - several strong racers got mixed up and missed controls or mispunched. For my handicap, the race had the feel of a forest sprint because the controls were rarely more than 200m apart and there were lots of changes in direction. It took longer than a sprint, but I approached it in the same way - except that I almost never checked a control description because there just wasn't time!

Great to hang out with friends in the sun, and we had a productive meeting afterward with the Orienteering Ontario Board and all the Ontario club presidents - including the Ottawa club. I'm not sure when that type of meeting last took place, but definitely not for many years. Nice job by Prez Sid.

Dr. Leanimal gave 'Bent the go-ahead to do light biking with his injured knee. He wanted to hit the Palgrave trails in this gorgeous "spring" weather, but his Evil Wife (the same one who makes him ice his knee multiple times a day) would only allow a short ride on the rail trail. His knee hurt after half an hour, so he ended up not minding too much. It took years to arrange next weekend's trip down the Grand Canyon with Dad, and - to put it mildly - the timing is a little unfortunate for 'Bent to have trouble walking downhill.

Rodney Yee - Yoga for Flexibility - while dealing with considerable interference from two enthusiastic dogs. (And I don't mean "Upward" and "Downward".)

Following up on an earlier discussion, here's what we did tonight.







Rick announced at the start of the show, "First a note about flash photography. We *encourage* it! It's the reason I became a performer." Too bad my camera was set on the wrong ISO. He spent far more time after the show greeting everyone who came than he spent on stage.

For fans of the show, the free tickets are all gone for the 2009/10 season, but apparently if you're passing by the CBC building on John St. at 7:15 p.m. during a Friday snowstorm, they sometimes beg people to come into the studio. Tonight there were 380 people in the audience - filled to the rafters. It's a complicated process to get that many people through the reserved ticket line-up, up to the 10th floor in two elevators, through a toy drive line-up, past coat check, into the studio, instructed to do the right things in the studio, out of the studio, etc. But the organization was impeccable and perfectly coordinated across a large group of event staff. We could do worse than to hand responsibility for ARWC over to the RMR team.

A group of women had made a quilt with a huge Rick Mercer face on it. His jaw dropped, then he said, "How did you know I sleep in a single bed?"

Interesting to see how the show comes together. 'Bent and I always chuckle at the camera lurch behind the plexiglass pillar that happens predictably near the start of every show. It was hilarious to see the cameraman practising his lurch move a few times as a warm-up before the show began.

KBomb, BulletDog and I returned to the Scene Of The Crime - the place where KBomb and Dee got turned around on Sunday while trying to complete the 21K Bruce Trail loop around the Hockley Valley.

We started at the top of Anderson Tract on the northeast corner of the loop, then followed the blue BT side trail blazes to 5th Line. KBomb recognized a number of places where she had been before - both on her run with Dee and on her reconnaissance mission from the south on Monday. Meanwhile, I realized that I'd taken an incorrect fork in the trail on Sunday too, although I was fortunate to rejoin the marked trail a few minutes later, so it didn't matter. It turns out that the side trail is fully blazed all the way through Anderson Tract, but sometimes with all the leaves down, it's hard to see the trail you're supposed to turn on, and there may be a much more visible (but wrong) turn near the correct turn. It wouldn't be a great place to get lost, since it's a large area filled with the most insanely steep hills of the entire Hockley loop!

We crossed to the south side of Hockley Valley and ran the BT the rest of the way back to the parking lot. Dog lovers be warned that there is one stile on the main trail east of Hockley Resort that has no "doggie door" in the barbed wire fence beside it. Thanks to KBomb for helping me get my muddy 30 kg pooch over a big Bruce Trail stile. BulletDog was *not* happy about negotiating the ladder steps, and given the cost of her bionic metal-plated knee, there was no way I was going to allow her to leap to the ground from 5 feet up, as she attempted to do. Other than that, she was a perfect running companion and had a terrific time.

It was a cold, rainy day where, if I hadn't made plans to meet someone, I would probably have made an excuse to skip this run. So thanks to KBomb for making it happen!

Hard Core Live with Caron

Class with lots of upper body twisting. I missed 'Bent's company, but his injured knee can't handle extreme sports like yoga.

While watching The Daily Show where Jon Stewart interviewed U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. A couple of weeks ago, Al Gore was on. The American comedy shows still don't go as far as ours, e.g. when Rick Mercer got tucked in on the couch by Prime Minister Stephen Harper during his "sleepover" at 24 Sussex Drive - and played hockey in the main foyer in his pyjamas with the PM's kids. But Jon is getting pretty close.

Races are over for awhile - it's time to work on strength again. Stoopid, pathetic toothpick arms!

Doc says I'm such a paleface that I need to wear SPF 30 every day of the year. I guess I would have done better in one of those cultures where servants held umbrellas to protect women's lily white skin from the sun. Yet another sign that I wasn't genetically destined for endurance sports!

Phatty and Leanimal stopped by this evening and shared a few more stories from ARWC. It was every bit as frustrating as we've all been imagining - and much more. On top of everything else we'd heard, it sounds like some of the race organizers behaved like complete jerks toward teams and support crews, the race briefing was uninformative and stressed the extreme importance of meeting race cut-offs (when actually it was better strategy to miss some of them), and the rules were enforced very poorly during the race, which explains why a top team was able to separate for hours and still win money. :-( But at least Portugal was beautiful. Looking forward to race reports from Leanimal, PhattyJR and STORM.

Congrats to Slowrunner and Hingo for sailing through the tough Ultimate XC Challenge 50K trail race in Moab this weekend with flying colours!

Rodney Yee - Yoga for Strength. Still waiting to get strong.