Training Log Archive: Bash

Congrats to Bender and Venus on the arrival of Mini-Bender late last night!

'Bent, Coach LD and I did an easy, flat trail ride to avoid stressing 'Bent's sore ankle. The trail is bikeable but there is plenty of mud and a few sections of snow/ice. We had to hose down our clothes afterward so they'd be clean enough to put in the laundry!

We stopped at the Inglewood General Store for an outdoor coffee and cookie. They dashed out apologetically, offering to clean the table and chairs because we were the first people to sit outside this season. We thanked them and suggested that they wait and clean up after we'd left, given our general state of muddiness. We stopped by Caledon Hills Cycling since they've got great stuff and we always run into people we know. Then back home to keep the pooches company after our long day out yesterday.

A most excellent bit of news from Frankenjack: he returned to the "scene of the crime" on the Humber River and saved his Forerunner from its watery fate. Phew.

35th Annual Humber River Downriver Race - This race has been on my radar for several years since it's so cool to see familiar places from unfamiliar points of view. In this case, it's an unusual view of Toronto as you follow the Humber River from Islington and Finch to just south of Hwy 401 near Weston Rd.



Canoes and kayaks were welcome; the kayaks were all cool racing boats. We had our whitewater canoe.



It was a small crowd but friendly and cheerful. We could warm up in a small rapid beside the start.





Our long lost NZ buddy Frankenjack was there. :)



As total neophytes, we'd brought every kind of gear just in case - air bags, dry suits, wet suits, helmets, etc. As it turned out, there were people using every kind of gear that we'd brought, i.e. a couple of guys in dry suits and a guy in T-shirt and shorts, paddlers in helmets and in ball caps. We learned at check-in that we'd be doing a shorter route because they hadn't been able to access Rowntree Mill Park, so we'd miss the class 2 section and just do class 1 and flatwater. The water was fairly low so we could walk to shore if we somehow managed to get ourselves in trouble. We ended up leaving a lot of gear behind.

We started from an eddy at 1-minute intervals, canoes ahead of kayaks. 'Bent and I started 3rd and moved up to 1st position for several kilometers. That's not as great as it sounds since we didn't have the benefit of being able to watch another boat pick lines ahead of us. The moving water wasn't difficult - we just had to avoid some sweepers, shallow sections and a few bigger rocks. More important was looking for the fastest line. We were passed halfway through the race, first by a kayak or two, then by the canoe that started behind us. Although we'd said we weren't really trying to race, the competitive juices started flowing! We noticed that they had a faster cadence and switched sides every few strokes, so we tried to emulate their excellent technique. We also noticed that they were using a Kevlar canoe and two bent shaft paddles, and there wasn't much we could do about that. Not sure I would have wanted to use our Kevlar canoe anyway, since we scraped bottom a couple of times, but we should have had two bent shaft paddles. 'Bent (of all people) had argued against it beforehand because of the rocks. I used an old repaired bent shaft and 'Bent used a regular paddle.



Although we gave a good chase to the canoe that passed us, they held their lead and ended up beating us by a little over a minute. The finish line was a low key set-up just south of the 401 at Dee Ave.



Frankenjack finished with a big smile considering that he'd dropped some important gear in the river halfway down, so he's going to have to go for a chilly swim tomorrow. At least it won't be as bad as his diving for the Zastera paddle blade after "we" lost it in Georgian Bay in December.



The post-race atmosphere reminded me of a local orienteering meet so I felt right at home. A bunch of friendly people sharing an interest in a niche sport, wandering around a parking lot, changing clothes by their cars, chatting happily to friends and strangers, snacking on cookies and pop.





As novices, 'Bent and I put on our silver medals backwards. Don't be impressed - there weren't many of us in the canoe category!



One of the paddlers told me this was one of the longest races they do all year - it's clearly a sprinter's sport. It was a fun day out and we'd definitely do one again. The organizers asked us to bring our friends next time!

'Bent guarded our canoe and Frankenjack's kayak while we headed back to the put-in where our cars were parked.



I'm not sure how FJ got there but I ran on the bike path along the Humber River.







In running back to the van, I kept up a good pace and was only a few minutes slower than Frankenjack's 10K PB! However, the distance was only 7.4K... :(

When I returned, I caught 'Bent doing Canoe Core.



Then off to the Salomon Store to see the new spring stuff Phatty selected. Great colours this season! (Or "colour stories" as Phatty has taught us to say.) Yay, the stretchable waterproof-breathable jackets finally have pit zips - or "Pete zips" as they're known in France since the idea originated with a certain Canadian. We had gift certificates from the Snowshoe Raid plus I indulged in the nice colours a little beyond that. :)

Two hours in a swimming pool class working on a progression of drills that led up to a kayak roll. We were using big plastic sea kayaks that I'd guess are probably more difficult to roll than my own boats.



I learned how to roll fifteen years ago but never tipped a kayak until recently so I lost the skill. Last time I learned it, we didn't go through so many intermediate steps so I found tonight's class really cool and useful. The initial focus was on getting the second part of the roll right, making it feel natural to move your body in the right manner to roll the kayak upright. Then we added the paddle.

1) While holding another kayak bow or the side of the pool with one hand, tip most of the way over and lie with your back in the water and your face just above the surface, staying relaxed, rotating your torso toward the front of the boat so that the line between your shoulders is parallel to the boat and you are leaning *way* out. Come back up as you would at the end of a roll, flicking your hips to start the boat rolling upright, then the body next, leaning way back toward the back deck of your boat, Your head comes out of the water last.

2) Do the same with an inflated paddle float in one hand instead of leaning against a kayak bow or pool side.

3) With the paddle float on your paddle, do the paddle motion of a roll, then come up moving your body the same way as in #1 and 2.

4) Remove the paddle float and attempt the roll for real.

Here's a view of me that will look familiar to Urthbuoy, Frankenjack and Getawaystix.



Here's what they would have preferred to see - me coming back to the surface without swimming and filling my boat with water. The biggest insight for me tonight was thinking of the paddle sweep as more of a brace that happens to sweep through the water at a slight angle. That mental image helps me keep the paddle at the right angle. When I think "sweep", I make the paddle too vertical and can't push off against it.



I think I was the only one in the class who did any unassisted rolls but I had the most motivation after tipping twice in rivers in the Canadian winter! My roll was only 50/50 after I got it; this is just the beginning of a *long* road toward learning how to do it consistently in the real, non-pool world. Fun evening!

Trail run fail with the loyal BulletDog. I expected mud and slush but it was mostly hard-as-rock ice. At the 1-minute mark, I went down so fast I don't even know what happened. Suddenly I was on my bad knee and both hands, breathless from pain. That freaked me out and made me super cautious for the rest of the run.

Couldn't get the stoopid Garmin heart rate monitor to work no matter what I tried - holding it close, waiting forever, running 55 minutes, slathering it with spit, etc. Maybe it's the battery...?

Then Thumbs-of-Death told my teammate 'Bent that he should skip the Giant's Rib Raid to give his ankle time to recover.

One ray of light is that if bad things happen in threes, I guess I'm done for the day. And the bad things that could happen while upside down in a kayak outweigh any of this stuff, and I'm (hopefully) learning to roll tonight.

March Report Card on 2011 Training Goals

The Good:
Expedition adventure race - APEX 4-day race in Switzerland in May. Aiming for one more.
24-hour rogaine + another 24+ hour AR - Eco-Endurance Challenge 24-hr rogaine with Crash in Halifax next month
Quality training any discipline 1+ sessions/week
Running 2+ hrs/week
Strength training 1+ hrs/week
Total annual training 550+ hrs - All on track

The Bad:
Make an effort to train/race with more people more often - Mostly solo training with a few fun exceptions, and no training with anyone for the first time. It's great to have 'Bent back in action (mostly) as his knee continues to recover. We joined the C3 triathlon club so there will be opportunities to train in different ways with different folks.

The Ugly:
50 km trail race and maybe a 50-miler - No ideas at all yet and it's something that needs to be planned for. Considering Creemore 25K again in early July - fun event.
Get 7+ hours of sleep on most nights - Not so much

Last month I added these smaller goals:
Get my kayak roll back - Pool clinic tonight
Get a bike computer with cadence and work on "getting it up" - Done (although increasing my natural cadence will be an ongoing battle)
Start using HRM again - Using old Polar with bike trainer. Will try Garmin HRM for today's run. (Report card-related guilt!)

**EDIT** - Oops, just realized I was linking to last year's event web page so had the wrong date. The race is this Saturday April 2, not Sunday.

Frankenjack inspired 'Bent and me to try the 35th Annual Humber River downriver race this Saturday. 13 km, up to class 2 in kayaks or canoes (we'll use a canoe). If you're interested, it's a whopping $15/person and I just phoned the organizer who recorded our names and said we can pay on race day.

More Daily Show. For some reason the kayak erg is less boring than the bike trainer but I'm looking forward to paddling on water again soon. Tomorrow night I'll be paddling in a swimming pool - a small improvement but it's progress.

While watching The Daily Show as Jon Stewart tried to figure out Libya.

Hingo came over to chat about the APEX adventure race in Switzerland. Due to other commitments, we both need to get our gear packed and details planned by the end of April even though we don't leave till May 20.

As the saying goes, one of the biggest challenges in expedition AR is getting to the start line. Luckily, APEX doesn't have a long list of obscure mandatory gear but as always, there are weight limitations to observe, gear bins/bags to figure out, and a few required items we don't currently have, e.g. a cell phone that works in Switzerland.

We need to figure out how to stay warm when wet in the Alps in springtime. Even if it's sunny, we'll be wet a lot between the sit-on-top kayaks and the canyoning, and we can expect glacial meltwater to be feeding some of the streams. Lots of planning left to do but we made good progress today.

We finished with a single track trail run, mostly around Palgrave East. Snow, ice, hills, tight curves and one impressive wipe-out by me on a slick hairpin turn. I slid kneecap-first toward a tree trunk and fortunately stopped in time to avoid a visit to 'Bent's surgeon. Beautiful day for a lunchtime run!

MEC has really expanded its product range. Today I bought a climbing helmet, paddling gloves, crampons and a little black dress - probably not to be worn together.

Carmichael Progressive Power DVD, workout #1. Oh goodie, the first workout was another time trial test - a verification of the original test I did two weeks ago to set my training wattage ranges.

This test was different. After a warm-up, we did 10 minutes in the Steady State power range as defined by the first test; this should be a little below lactate threshold. After some recovery, we did a second 10-minute interval holding the power 10-15 watts above Steady State; this should be a little higher than lactate threshold. Then the final 10-minute interval was 20-25 watts higher than steady state, i.e. close to max effort.

It was tough but I'm very obedient when a coach 20 cm tall on the TV screen keeps shouting, "Push it, push it - come on, go go go, you can do it!" Sweat flying, heart pounding, I got it done. Then the kicker... finding out the way the verification test works. If you're able to get through the second interval in the prescribed wattage range, you should consider increasing your wattage ranges for training. If you get through the third interval, particularly if you're hitting power numbers above your initial test, you *definitely* need to increase your wattage zones so you'll be working hard enough in subsequent workouts. Grrr, so it turned out to be an ambush and they got me!

My inner geek was very pleased to be able to watch all the numbers: power, cadence, heart rate, speed - oh my!

One of my more controversial gear purchases based on feedback received... a new Jackson Hero whitewater kayak at a greatly reduced price because it's last year's model and the boat has been updated for 2011.



I found it on the MEC online Gear Swap and it will travel by bus from B.C. Funderstorm and I will be twins on the river now. Hope that's not in poor taste, like wearing the same dress to a party! (I think yours is a different colour, FStorm?)

While watching The Daily Show. I was reading an article on the weekend saying that a runner should have small calves. The rationale is that it takes more energy to move a heavier leg forward, and the farther from your centre of gravity the weight is (i.e. the calves are far), the more work it is. Mountain bikers, on the other hand, have decent calf muscles, and adventure racers who want to trek up Alps could probably use strong calves as well. Ah, the constant confusion and compromises of multi-sport.

Started the day by modeling for a magazine shoot with my friend Nikki, who is writing the article. The toughest part was finding bright-coloured clothes that were dressy enough for a magazine and ratty enough to bushwhack in.

We did some snowshoe running while pretending it was snowy enough to need snowshoes, and some snowshoe orienteering while pretending to navigate; at least we were holding the correct map. We know the professional photographer well and he got some great shots, one of which may grace the cover of a magazine next winter. I hadn't realized that the photo shoot would also include an animal wrangler or I would have brought BulletDog to hang out with the other two dogs.

I stopped on the way home to run an out-and-back route starting south on the Bruce Trail from Caledon Mountain Drive in Belfountain then east down the BIG hill on The Grange Sideroad, which was mostly covered in ice and hard-packed snow. On the return trip, the first kilometer (McLaren Rd. junction to equestrian neighbourhood sign) was a tough climb going most of the way up the escarpment. Then for the next 1.25 km, I gained elevation in little "steps" followed by short flat sections. I'll need to come back later in the spring and pretend this is an Alp. A few more repeats of the Grange and I'll be ready for the Eiger. ;) I felt good running today - loved the brilliant sunshine and snow.