Training Log Archive: Bash

Thomass Stars at Dumfries Conservation Area after a surprise overnight snowstorm.

Mick and Laura put on an excellent event today and it went almost perfectly for me. I felt good running through the heavy snow. I had a few navigation bobbles but didn't waste too much time on them. Mick had put a map exchange in the middle of the course, and the course on the second map was interesting and different from the first map. Fun!

I was leading the handicapped race up to #7, I think, then I made a bad route choice through thick forest to 8. I ran into Nick and we punched "f" together as we entered the final Thomass Box. I glanced at the map and, in my hypoxic state, read "9" as "g" and failed to notice the line joining 8 to 9. I decided to skip "g" since I only needed to do two controls per box because of my handicap. After visiting one more control, I dashed to the finish where I was the winner by 4 minutes.

I savoured my victory for close to half an hour, then Nick asked me what I'd done to correct the error we'd made by punching "f" before 9. Um, really? There was a control 9?!? Sure enough, it was really, really obvious when the map was unfolded and I had sufficient oxygen going to my brain. So I quickly confessed my sin (since the SI software hadn't discovered it) and advised AdventureGirl! that she was the very deserving winner.

I wasn't alone - about a third of competitors mispunched in various ways. There were a lot of controls in the woods and the maps had a lot going on, but it was totally understandable with 20/20 hindsight. I just messed up! It should probably bother me more but I had such a great time out there that being disqualified was just a minor glitch in an otherwise fun event with good training value.

Thanks to Mick and Laura for a great morning in a new area. Nice to see so many friends out!

We really wanted to ski today; the season is almost over and we missed a good chunk of it to go to NZ. But the forecast opened with "Heavy Rainfall Warning in Effect"... sigh. So we decided to do the C3 Saturday morning spin workout in Caledon East - but apparently, it starts earlier than the website says. We peeked in the door and made a swift retreat upon seeing all those intimidatingly fit triathletes standing and pumping their pedals, obviously long past their warm-up.

Back home to our Adventure Basement (tm), much to the delight of our pooches. For the first hour, we did Spinervals 29.0 "Dropping The Hammer" where Coach Troy made no bones about trying to kill us. Then, after he'd advised us to recover for 48-72 hours before doing anything else, we rode for another hour at a good pace, watching a documentary on the specialty coffee industry.

Bottom line: There are different advantages for organic, bird-friendly, shade grown, Rainforest Alliance-certified, fair trade and "fairly traded" (not the same thing) types of coffee. You should probably buy coffee that meets one or more of these criteria, although people have different opinions about which one matters the most. In general, buying specialty coffee vs. a supermarket can is a better environmental and social choice.

Paddled at a hard but maintainable pace while watching two more Daily Shows. Is it bad that the majority of my knowledge of U.S. politics comes from the Comedy Network? Yeah, I thought so.

And once again, I demonstrated the reason why I can't lose weight through exercise alone. At lunch time after 3 hours of training, I inhaled about 1200 calories in 20 minutes. Oops.

Unplanned rest day filled with training-related activities. I dressed to go trail running then made a "quick" phone call to Schwinn to find out the meaning of my treadmill's error message. This led to a useful diagnostic exercise that lasted over an hour and ended with bad news. Then we realized that tomorrow's XC ski plans were doomed due to the forecast of heavy rain, so we decided to do the C3 spin workout instead. This meant that Princess had to be released from the bike box and reassembled. No time for trail running by then since we had to dash to Belfountain to see an excellent Everest climb presentation by endurance athlete Laval St. Germain. Now my feet are itching to do something really adventurous!

Argghh, after an interesting e-mail exchange with Carbon about training strategies, I was feeling super motivated about training and keen to try a different type of workout on the treadmill - but it's pooched. I've had it almost 10 years and haven't used it that much. I'm guessing it's something big like the motor. I don't really use it enough to justify replacing it so here's hoping "Err L5" turns out to be inexpensive. But I doubt it.

Hard Core Live with Caron. Nice to be back - although the "core time trial" with 50s of various exercises reminded me that we've missed a few classes. But 'Bent and I got through it. We even smiled.

C3 Class. Feels soooo good. And that's fortunate because we'll still be feeling some of those poses tomorrow!

Took advantage of the sunshine by bushwhacking and trail hiking through the Humber Valley with Leanimal and Weeanimal. Great to catch up with Lee and have a chance to hang out with Weeanimal, who is growing taller and cuter by the minute.

Today's controversial Canadian debate topic: Is Canoeing better than sex?!

I like the reason added by one of the commenters on the blog:
"Same sex paddling is not frowned upon, but encouraged."

Also, "When you see a really good canoeist, you don’t have to feel guilty about imagining the two of you paddling together."

And "There are no paddling-transmitted diseases."

I'll bet APers could come up with a few more of our own!

While going through Daily Shows on the PVR.

Bumped up weights on a couple more things.

Interesting article on running hills, drawing on scientific studies.
Take-away point for me: work at taking more steps when running downhill. I'm definitely an overstrider.

The Harvey/Kershaw world championship victory is almost more exciting when you don't understand the language of the commentator. Harvey's finish sprint is awesome to watch!
http://www.nrk.no/sport/meisterskap/ski-vm-2011/ny...

Jan/Feb Report Card on 2011 Goals

This year got off to a different start with a major summer race to prepare for in mid-February. Mostly it made a positive difference - I've never done so much paddling in Jan/Feb! But my strength training is even more pitiful than usual. Onward and upward!

1) Do an expedition adventure race (3+ days non-stop)
Registered for the APEX Race in Switzerland in May. Seeking a team for the AR World Champs in November. (I really wanted to do two expedition races but didn't dare make that a goal.)

at least one 24-hour rogaine and at least one other 24+ hour adventure race.
Aiming for the Eco-Endurance Challenge in Halifax in May.

Run my second 50 km trail race. Consider a 50-miler if my joints are happy.
No ideas yet. If I'm successful with planning several other long races, I may have to back off on trail running races. But that's OK - they'll still be there next year.

Finish Speight's Coast to Coast.
Well, there's no sugar coating it. I failed. But I like to think that I failed with flair. :)

2) Quality training at least once a week - hills, tempo or speed intervals. Any discipline.
I'm getting into more of a habit. If there's a bright side to DNFing C2C, it's that I'm super motivated to train the one or two fast twitch fibres I might possibly have. I've done both run and bike intervals in the past week and I'm keen to do more.

3) Running - at least 2 hrs/week on average over the year.
Batting this one out of the park.

4) Strength training - at least 1 hr/week
Fail. Really, really big fail.

5) Total annual training - 550 hrs.
On track.

6) Get 7+ hours of sleep on most nights.
Working on it. Not so successful.

Make an effort to get together with more people more often to enjoy the great outdoors together.
This was an unofficial, unmeasured goal to train with an expanded circle of people, and it went well over the last couple of months. I paddled, skied and ran with Urthbuoy, skied with Charm and AZ, ran and paddled with Frankenjack, and snowshoe raced with Dee, just to name a few. And in Switzerland, I'll be racing with two teammates I've never raced with before.

I've added a few other things to my training plans for 2011:
- Get my kayak roll back.
- Get a bike computer with cadence and work on "getting it up".
- Start using my HRM again.

So far, so good - except for the sleep and the strength. (Broken record from other years, I know.)

Palgrave East and West at sunset - single track and double track, ice and ankle-deep crusty snow, hills and tight turns. A little bit of everything. It was hard work and felt like strength training at times! My knee seems to have forgiven me for bashing it on boulders in NZ - no pain at all today. Phew.

It's been a week since a devastating earthquake hit Christchurch, the beautiful city that welcomed us with open arms. 'Bent and I tuned into Radio New Zealand at 6:51 p.m. to share in their national two minutes of silence exactly seven days later. The latest estimate is that about 240 people have lost their lives. Officials have warned families that the damage is so severe that some of their loved ones may never be found. Many more people have lost their homes or workplaces. Families have left town, some of them for good. Their children are frightened after two major earthquakes in five months. The town's centre is in ruins.

We hear about tragedies on the news every day but sadly, we aren't able to give them all the attention they deserve. This one feels more real to us because we recognize the rubble-strewn downtown streets we shopped on, the damaged coffee shop we sat in, the heaved-up roads we drove on, the broken cliff we stood under and the collapsed cathedral we explored. Sometimes when things like this happen, you feel relieved, "Holy crap, if that had happened a week earlier, I could have been killed." But honestly, my thoughts haven't gone there, at least not so far. I'm heartbroken for the people of Christchurch who treated us with such kindness and for their lovely city that lies in ruins.

Over the past week, Jack and I have communicated with some of the people we met. A couple have lost their homes and places of work but thankfully, none have lost family members or their own lives. Because I shared so many of our NZ experiences with AP, I want to share some post-earthquake follow-up.

For our first week in Christchurch, we rented a house next to Hagley Park, a huge urban green area. There is now an evacuation camp on the manicured grass.



The couple who rented us the house by the park also own a nearby motel. They did not suffer any property damage but they've been worked off their feet since the quake. First, all the people who were booked to stay with them left town or cancelled their reservations. Then they were flooded with rescue workers needing a place to stay. They feel sick about what has happened to their beloved city but don't have much time to think about it now.

The earthquake was centred under the harbour of Lyttelton where we first tested our kayaks.



To get there, we drove through a long tunnel under a mountain; it was closed for several days after the quake due to rockfall. After paddling, we visited shops and went for coffee on Lyttelton's charming main street which is now filled with rubble. Luckily, no one died there.

Our kayak guide Gaz, who has river and climbing rescue skills, joined in the urban search and rescue efforts for the first few days until the international teams arrived. He described the work as truly heartbreaking and emotionally draining. I can only imagine (thank God).



Sam, the paddler who drove the van to shuttle us on the Waimakariri River, was lucky. Thanks to "a very well timed leap", he is alive and well.



He works in the shop where my kayak is being packed in a custom-built box for shipment to Canada. The shop is structurally sound with damage to some of their wares. I haven't yet heard whether my kayak survived the quake undamaged. It doesn't matter to me at all compared to the big losses other people have suffered but it is strange having this small personal connection to a natural disaster halfway around the world.

Race Director Robin Judkins and the Coast to Coast organizers are fine.



They are based in Sumner where the race finishes. This beautiful beach suburb suffered particularly severe property damage although fortunately the loss of life was fairly low. Some cliffs in Sumner and adjacent areas have collapsed, sending large rocks plummeting onto the road where C2C competitors biked and destroying a few buildings. Some homes on top of the cliffs are closer to the edge now and may not be safe.



The apartment building we stayed in at Sumner Beach has been evacuated due to structural integrity concerns.



The senior couple who rented it to us also ran a B&B in a lovely old house where they'd lived for 34 years and raised three children. Their house - and thus their business - was destroyed and they aren't allowed to stay in the evacuated apartment, which was their intended retirement home, so they've had to leave town for now. They snuck back into their house to retrieve some treasures. They can't even drive a car up their road because of big cracks in the road. Their story made the local paper.

Finally, there is major damage to the heart of Christchurch, including the collapse of their iconic stone cathedral. It is believed that 22 bodies lie beneath the rubble.



This link uses a fascinating technique to let you compare before and after images of the cathedral and other parts of town.

If you also feel a connection to New Zealand and its current crisis, you may be interested in the international earthquake appeal fund set up by the NZ government. We don't get tax receipts for a donation but I can't find a Canadian organization that is sending a comparable percentage of their funds to NZ. I suspect the admin overhead for the new fund is relatively low so most of the money should get to where it is needed.

Spinervals 1.0 "No Slackers Allowed". Interval session with the merciless Coach Troy. Who knew I could sweat that much in a 12C basement? Must do more of these.

While watching The Daily Show. It's getting so I really don't mind the kayak erg which is good because it might be awhile till we can get out on the water.