Training Log Archive: Bash

Great job by VO2Max in a 42 km skate ski race in northern Italy today. Just to give us all something to work toward, his time was 1:31:56. That's 27.4 km/hr maintained for 1.5 hrs!

While watching Olympic men's ski cross. Oh... Canada. Sooo close but 4th again.

Falling way behind on my strength training goals. That's mostly because it has been so nice outdoors, so I'm not feeling too badly about it. But definitely weaker.

Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Snowshoe Raid with Coach LD. Great event organization and race course by Getawaystix as usual, and an awesome team of volunteers that included STORM.





Conditions were perfect - right around freezing and plenty of snow. We knew we wouldn't reach the northeast quadrant of the course since we're not a strong running team, and we wouldn't split up for the Matrix since Coach LD is a new navigator, so we focused on everything else.

Things went according to plan and, for once, there are really no stories to tell! We had map chats along the way, did some running, did some trail breaking, did some steep climbs and had a good day. We survived a snowball attack by Etoile and AdventureGirl! on the course, but the race director refused to penalize them.

Less than 30 minutes from the end, something in Coach LD's leg went "YOW", but we still managed to pick up one Matrix control on our way in. Too bad it didn't occur to us that Coach LD could have legally waited for me at the finish line rather than exacerbating her pain by coming down (and up) the ski hill, and maybe we could have picked up an extra Matrix control to chick the Abdominal Snowmen. But we made it to the finish line with just under 2 minutes to spare, and that's what matters. Luckily it wasn't as scary a finish as last year's race with Hammer!

We took the silver in the female category behind the unbeatable Leanimal and PGB, just back from Ecuador. 'Bent and Eugenius took the bronze in a very tough Masters category. Overall winners were Griz and Turbo from the Masters category. Tiny and Nicole won Coed, Sudden and Dang won Male, Mr. & Mrs. GHOSlow won SuperMasters, Etoile & AdventureGirl! won Family, and the Steele kids won Junior. Congrats to all!

Here's our team. For some reason, we look like we're posing for catalogue photos!







And here are some other shots from the day including many Attackpointers. (Sorry Hutspot, you were avoiding me.) Thanks to William Young for sharing his awesome pics from the race course.

Wonder what it takes for Shaun White to own the podium in snowboard halfpipe? Would you believe a secret private half-pipe funded by Red Bull?!

Urthbuoy's recent project reminded me that I completed my 2-week food diary a month ago today. By Jan. 18, I'd lost 8 lb and 3% body fat from the start of the year. One month after stopping the calorie count, I'm down another 1-2 lb, depending on the day, and another 1% body fat. That's close to the target, although another lb would be good.

The good news is, I haven't felt deprived. I've eaten chocolate every single day and we've had a couple of pig-out restaurant meals. Some of the bigger changes have been:

- Breakfast is usually oatmeal or low-fat cold cereal with fruit. (I used to have a daily bagel.)
- Drinking more water and herbal tea instead of juice
- More yoghurt (lots of protein and feels like a treat)
- Sneaking extra protein into my diet while living with a non-meat eater, e.g. smoked salmon and pre-cooked chicken slices from the deli department
- More legumes in addition to the ones I was already eating, e.g. snacks of mixed bean salad from the deli and split pea soup
- Going lighter on some of my favourite healthy snacks where it's surprisingly easy to rack up the calories, e.g. flatbreads with hummus, baba ghanouj or fresh avocado. Bean-based dips are lower fat, and veggies are better to dip than flatbreads.
- Smaller servings at dinner, sometimes fooling myself with a smaller plate
- Trying to reach for fruit and veggies when I'm in the mood for a mindless snack. (Yes, it would be nice if I could talk myself out of mindless snacks, but that hasn't worked so far!)

What's cool is that 'Bent lost weight by osmosis over the same period. Now we just need to get his knee fixed so he can run on it with his new lighter body.

After a *lot* of spectating recently, it looks like we can focus on the Olympics (mostly!) Here is some random info from recent events our friends have raced in:

Jen Segger of Breathe Mag reports on Huairasinchi race in Ecuador

Nice quote from PhattyJR on Sleepmonsters after Patagonia: “You can get to pretty remote places back home, but this seems to raise the bar once more,” said the Canadian on the finish line. “For a sport like this you can’t get anything better. It’s just perfect.”

Sleepmonsters also has updates on Huairasinchi and Patagonia.

Update from Brittany Webster at the Olympics (she's sick, unfortunately, and will do only one race)

In honour of the Olympics, the New York Times has published some useful Crib Notes on Canada.

I left my favourite gloves at Mansfield yesterday and someone turned them in, so I went up for a short ski. It was an amazing day - 10 cm of fluffy-looking new snow with twirling flakes drifting down. Trails hadn't been groomed since yesterday morning, so I had the perfect excuse to ski classic instead of skate (yay).

Turns out appearances were deceptive. It was just over freezing, so I headed out on fast waxless skis first, but they were sticky. After a short loop, I switched to classic racing skis with no new wax, thinking that I'd get an upper body workout, but I sure wouldn't stick. I committed myself to a longer loop, then realized that the problem wasn't with the waxless skis after all. It just happened that conditions were perfect for freezing bricks of snow to the bottom of skis. I stopped and scraped a few times, but the skis gummed up again within minutes.

It was hard work at best but kinda scary on the downhills since I wasn't sure when one ski might stick, causing me to do sudden, unintentional splits. On the bright side, today is the perfect day to build a snowman or a fort, or to throw snowballs at your sibling. Plus I got my gloves back!

New food for adventure racing?

Great morning ski at Mansfield with Phatty and 'Bent pushing the pace. Fantastic, fast conditions! We were among the first people to arrive, and we met almost no one on the trails. By noon, the parking lot was almost full of skiers celebrating the new Family Day holiday. Then it was time for us to watch some awesome Olympic XC skiing!