Training Log Archive: Bash

Uh oh... I guess the plan to keep these two races apart didn't work out.

The APEX Race - June 5-10, 2012

Untamed New England - June 19-24, 2012

'Bent is coming home tonight and it occurred to me that a *good* wife would buy groceries so he could enjoy cooking meals after a week of living in hotels. I'm sure he really missed his - I mean "our" - stove. (Note to self: must clean spider webs off stove.) Furthermore, if the good wife went to a town big enough to have a grocery store, it would surely be equipped with a Dairy Queen so she could finally have the post-rogaine hot fudge sundae that she did not have in a more timely fashion because she got chilled racing in a hurricane.

The only missing element in this plan was a HTFU hill training session to kick off the process of getting ready for my mountain 50-miler. It's not the right timing for a full Hockley Loop with Logs Rocks and Steel coming up this weekend, but I figured I could do the Bruce Trail and all its side trails within Hockley Provincial Park on my way to Orangeville, where grocery stores and a DQ can be found.

I drove west toward a sky full of formidable black clouds. Ha! I'm not afraid of a little weather! I felt quite virtuous. Then the rain started smacking down so hard that cars were pulling over on the shoulder because they couldn't see, even with wipers on high. Hmm, it was so hot that I hadn't even brought a jacket. Luckily, it stopped and I went running on wet trails. It was physically demanding, technical running - good stuff and a little more than I'd expected. I tried to run up and down everything although it got awfully slow on some of the slippery log steps. At the far end of the run, I decided to act like a European and increase the weight of my pack by picking some beautiful, ripe wild apples. It's a great year for them and I'm sure I'll be picking a lot more over the next month.

The hot fudge sundae was good too. :)

As I continue to think about Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc 2013, I came across this article talking about why U.S. ultrarunners have typically not done as well at European events as Euro runners have done in U.S. events. A quick overview of the points presented:

1) Number of runners at the start line - Much higher in Europe. Affects runners' emotions, pacing, strategy.

2) Support model - In Europe, no pacers are allowed, no one can help you carry water or food, no one can coach you on trail nor supervise your nutrition/hydration. Mountain ultra runners in Europe always carry a backpack and often use poles. (When it comes to point #2, I am very European! I almost always carry a pack and I can't imagine that I will have support crew for any ultra events - although UTMB is the one major Euro race that allows it.)

3) The terrain - Races in Europe usually consists of 80% single track - very technical, lots of steep up and down. Even top runners will do some fast walking. In the U.S., the popular events often include long stretches of forest roads and easy going trails; it may be possible to run the entire course.

4) Professional approach to the sport - This applies to elites with teams backing them, e.g. Salomon's comprehensive, professional support of 3-time UTMB winner Killian Jornet

5) Racing season, calendar - Euro scene includes different types of popular events like vertical kilometer mountain runs and very technical short distance races with steep ascents/descents. These are common, even in winter (replaced by ski mountaineering competitions in snowy areas), and very competitive.

For those who haven't yet seen this video from the 2011 UTMB a couple of weeks ago, maybe this will convince you to join me in 2013? :) The group is gradually growing, with some considering the "shorter" 98 km CCC event (5600 m elevation gain) that travels part of the 166 km UTMB course (9500 m elevation gain).

Can't do more than one push-up on the floor since BazingaDog crawls under my chest and curls up before I can do a second one. For some reason, there's something very enticing about a human coming down to dog level. I managed to devise a puppy-proof workout while Jon Stewart brought me up to date on U.S. politics and economy.

With 'Bent overseas and a young puppy at home, I can't go out for longer than 4 hours at a time, so it was looking like a quiet/lonely Labour Day weekend in the boonies. Mrs. Tiny and WandAR generously drove to Palgrave to keep me company, and I took them on a tour of Albion Hills single track.



Conditions were excellent and we looked forward to finishing at the Palgrave Cafe for lunch. It was closed just for this weekend. Boo. OK fine, we rode home to have a quick shower and let the pooches out, then we drove to Caledon East to the Caledon Hills Coffee Company where Crash works her culinary magic. It was closed due to a family emergency. At 1:45, we finally found a place that would feed our monster appetites; it was an average lunch but the company and the trails were well above average. Thanks very much, ladies!

Thought it might be nice to kick off the holiday weekend with some kayaking (albeit on a less scenic lake than last Friday) but then the storm rolled in. So I watched the Daily Show on the erg instead. I actually don't mind the paddle erg even though I count the minutes on the treadmill or bike trainer. Too bad that after next weekend, I don't have any paddle racing on the schedule for a loooong time.

Treadmill intervals - not keen on program P2. When intervals are the right speed, the "rest" segments are too slow. Legs are feeling good after the weekend. Now it is almost time to taper for Logs Rocks and Steel! The MTB ride tomorrow morning will be great.

Rats, just missed the photo opportunity of the morning. BazingaDog is not crate-trained yet but this morning he climbed on *top* of his blanket-covered cage and had a little nap up there. Just like Snoopy!

[Later...] He's baaack! Yes, I know a responsible dog owner would discourage this "cute-only-while-he's small" behaviour rather than sneaking away for her camera. Oh well.

West on the Bruce Trail side trail to Centreville Creek and back. First run since the rogaine and aside from needing to tape one blister, I felt surprisingly good and ended up turning it into a tempo run where I worked on attacking the uphills. It was one of my faster runs on this route, which is absolutely ridiculous. I know I'm all about the slow twitch but do I *really* need a 102 km warm-up to run a decent 10K? I guess this is a concrete example of the old adage, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger".

Thanks to Flatfoot for organizing the first AR pub night in my memory. Great to see friendly faces and share stories, drinks and food. (In my case, the food part was especially welcome since 'Bent is overseas and he normally cooks all our meals! Yes, I'm spoiled.)

For those who met Evan, the adventure racer newly arrived from Switzerland, please add a welcome note to his AP log.
http://www.ar.attackpoint.org/log.jsp/user_9916

Only 3 months to get ready for 10,731' of elevation gain in 80 km of running. I anticipate some Hockley Loops in my future.

BazingaDog joined in on any exercise where my face was less than a meter off the ground, increasing the degree of difficulty. We got his DNA test results today and he is mostly Lab Retriever with a good dollop of Golden Retriever and a small dash of West Highland White Terrier - the mystery ingredient.

I'm feeling good after the weekend but it's been a busy week so not much training yet. Foot blisters haven't healed completely but muscles/joints feel fine after 102 km on foot. At a meeting tonight, a woman asked whether our new puppy had caused all the scratches on my arms. I didn't think they were that bad, which shows how low my standards are. Good thing she didn't see my legs!

There aren't many advantages to getting older but one of them is that you can buy yourself nice birthday presents. I belatedly gave myself a 17" Macbook Pro today. Time to play. :)