Training Log Archive: Bash

Note to those considering UTMB: With the cooperation of the Sulphur Springs Trail Run event director, I've sent a request to the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc Selection Committee to accredit the 50-mile and 100-mile distances as UTMB qualifying races. In the best case, they could be worth 2 and 3 points respectively. The elevation gain for the 50K distance didn't meet the UTMB criteria.

The RD said that someone else had already submitted this request with no response so far from UTMB. With 19 aid stations on the 50-mile course and 39 on the 100-mile course, UTMB may not consider racers to be autonomous enough to meet their requirements. Anyone who wants points this spring should research other alternatives but if we're lucky, maybe this local alternative will work out.

'Bent's cold has improved over the weekend, as has my shoulder, so we decided to try a short cross-country ski at Highlands. Glad we went since it's February - the best time to ski (sigh) - but in a real winter, today's conditions wouldn't have been worth the drive.

The classic tracks were rock hard and icy and occasionally non-existent. I loved Arthurd's description of classic tracks on the sketchy Ski-O World Cup race course as "death canyons"; those words popped into my mind on one wild corner today. It was scary at times for someone who really didn't want to fall onto a hard surface on an injured shoulder.

Luckily, I stayed upright. My waxless skis slipped a lot and I even resorted to skating in a few places. Skating definitely would have been the better choice today. The final big downhill was crazy. 'Bent came up behind two people who had taken off their skis and were walking abreast down the hill on the ski trail! That's not the type of etiquette you usually see at Highlands, where most people seem to know what they're doing. I was luckier but had to sneak past several nervous people near the top of the hill. I'd planned to go another 5K but didn't feel inspired. Lunch at the cafe in Creemore sounded *way* better.

P.S. Garmin says that about 30% of this ski was 15 kph or faster. That sure isn't my usual classic pace. No wonder it was scary at times! Poor KD (Goose Jr.) broke her arm at the Eastern Canadian XC Ski Champs - conditions are probably dicey there too.

Yahoo! VO2Max was 3rd in the 15K Free race at the Eastern Canadian XC Ski Champs. The "bad" news is that we have to pay him $50 due to our ongoing side bet related to podium finishes... We're still hoping to cheer him on in Sochi.

In honour of my Death Race registration - and to give my rotator cuff more rest before using ski poles again - I did my first long run in awhile. I went from home to Glen Haffy on the Bruce Trail, right up to Hwy 9, which was the halfway point. The trail was a hilly skating rink. My spikes were keeping me upright but no shoe could give me the ability to push off with my back foot in these conditions, so it was a slow run. (Not to be confused with an "easy" run, since it took plenty of energy to stabilize myself.)

I only fell once and it was only peripherally related to the ice. I was running just beside the slippery trail when my foot caught on a thick, sawed-off sapling. I did a spectacular Superman dive that flung me into a push-up that engaged my injured shoulder. Yesterday that would have hurt so much that I might have stayed on the ground and waited for coyotes to devour me and put me out of my misery. But fortunately, the combination of ice and chiro treatment has made the pain much more manageable over the past 24 hours.

At Hwy 9, I decided to head cross-country through Glen Haffy to Coolihan's Sideroad rather than taking the trail. There was some snow slogging, some nasty bushwhacking through thorny bushes and some fun running through open areas covered in light snow. Much nicer than the trail.

I cleaned up a little garbage that had been buried under the snow at last week's orienteering meet, then decided to head home on hilly country roads - a mixture of mud and ice, usually with enough gravel to give traction. Nice run - a few Garmin stops along the way to say hi to people and dogs. Today's podcasts were "Endurance Planet", "Spark" (CBC) and "This American Life".

Drum roll... It's time for the Ceremonial Changing Of The Injuries. After 110 days, my badly sprained ankle doesn't feel quite normal but it's close enough and is not affecting my activities. My yoga balance poses on the left side are less reliable and my foot doesn't bend for its first few steps each morning - that's most of what I notice. It's much, much better than it was two months ago today when I ran 83 km on it, which undoubtedly delayed its recovery.

This gives me time to focus on a brand new injury - well, actually, a chronic niggle that flared up into a big deal this week - an inflamed rotator cuff. The swimming brought it out of hiding, then last night's yoga class set it on fire!

While it's recovering, I'm allowed to do anything that doesn't involve lifting my upper arm above my shoulder. My sports chiro, Thumbs of Death, gave me a little plastic model of a shoulder to play with that showed me why. That's no problem since I can't do that anyway. I have to lift my right elbow with my left hand to comb my hair, for example. ToD proceeded to inflict some of the nastiest pain ever in order to loosen things up a bit. Guess that'll be happening a lot over the next while.

Easier run around the hilly Palgrave West skating rink trails before taking my rotator cuff to see Thumbs of Death.

Can't resist just one more short one... Sh$% Barefoot Runners Say

Hard Core Live with Caron

Yoga class - had to be very cautious of painful rotator cuff. Boo. It could have been a lot worse, actually. There are only a few types of movement that hurt.

BulletDog and I hit the icy trails of Palgrave West. It's a skating rink out there today. I felt like I was running well though. One thing about ice is that it removes the temptation to overstride, thus my cadence was better than usual.

These shorter runs are a treat - a chance to get my legs moving faster after doing so many longer runs in the fall. It was also a luxury to run with a mature dog who can be trusted off-leash. Much as I love BazingaPuppy, it is not relaxing to run with him yet. That time will come soon enough and then I will miss his goofy puppy nature. In the meantime, BulletDog and I will sneak out for occasional "grown-up" runs.

So... there are 280 Death Race soloists signed up after 24 hours (only 244 finishers last year) and it looks like STORM, LosDobos and I will be representing the Ontario AR crowd. Excited!

Alas, Wiarton Willie failed to see his shadow this morning so an early spring is in the forecast for Ontario even though we haven't had winter yet. On the bright side, Balzac Billie in Calgary *did* see his shadow so there will be 6 more weeks of winter to make our XC ski vacation more fun.

Plans for the year are starting to come together. Sadly, our APEX team didn't work out but Carbon and I are planning to do the Three15er 24-hour Rogaine in Washington State on Sept. 29-30, which will likely be the North American Championship. So happy to finally race with Carbon! Our goal is to beat her regular navigator on Team Wild Rose, Revy. ;)

After signing up for the Death Race today, I had to go running, of course. Also, in a weak moment awhile ago, I signed up for the February Challenge organized on Facebook by ultrarunner Ken Niemimaa. It's a commitment to run at least 5K/day for all 29 days of February. No days off or we're out. I signed up on the condition that skiing would have to count but it's looking more like running weather (sigh).

BazingaPuppy and I did a speedy tour of Palgrave West on trails that were mostly ice-covered with some snow, slush, mud and puddles for variety. At one point the pace felt crazy and my Garmin said we were doing 4 min/km, which is not remotely close to my pace *without* a crazed Lab/demon mix puppy on leash. We detoured around a big fallen tree and ended up doing some bushwhacking (logged separately since it was so different).

Bushwhacking with BazingaPuppy in the snow. The forest got really thick in places!

Quick bike ride "near San Diego", using the "Rides 3 - Southern California" DVD. No time for the whole thing today so I warmed up and climbed a big hill with them, then cooled down afterward.

Ave Watts: 152
Ave Cadence: 75 (not so good but we were doing slower cadence standing hill climbs)
Ave Speed - 23.9 kph

Just some quick calf and tibialis anterior strengthening and a dozen lunges on each side. Not much time tonight.

Almost 200 solos have signed up for the Canadian Death Race since registration opened half an hour ago. I am IN. Six months to get ready for 125 km of mountain running. For once, I've actually got enough time to do it properly. Let the training begin!

And wouldn't you know it...? Minutes before CDR Registration opened, the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc released new, tougher requirements for their 2013 events. We need 2 points (which I already have from my 50-miler) to enter the lottery for either of their two "shorter" events (98 and 109 km) and 7 points to enter the lottery for UTMB. So I need another 50-miler this year. It's not the worst news I've had all day; it will mean that the lottery is open to slightly fewer people. But I won't have a lot of flex to accommodate any DNFs.

A true sports hero... Tour de France champion and two-time Giro d'Italia winner Gino Bartali used his training rides to save hundreds of Jewish lives in WWII. Why have Phil and Paul never told us about this? It sounds like the full story has only come out recently.

Rectal Exam Amendment fails in The End (tee hee). Clever idea though.

An online training log is supposed to improve accountability but you guys are too easy on me!

Way back on Nov. 17, I complained about injuries and a bunch of you ganged up on me to convince me to try swimming. I had a long list of reasons why it wasn't a great fit but then - because I hate it when people make excuses - I committed to trying it by the end of 2011.

Well... the attempt to fit the public fitness swim schedule with my schedule was as complicated as expected, and I finally made it there today after several failed attempts. It was a 50-minute return drive. By the time I paid, showered and changed before and after, it was close to a 2-hour investment for a 45-minute swim, not counting packing my gear at home beforehand. That's a lot of overhead.

However, the swimming part was good. I had been ridiculously concerned about this. I googled the proper etiquette for lane swimming, bought swim goggles and located my old swim cap. I cut my fingernails and removed my watch to avoid injuring my fellow lane swimmers.

But I got there and the pool was empty except for a few giggling teenagers chatting in one corner. All but one of them left shortly after I arrived. The lifeguard said she could make more swimming lanes if others arrived but I could swim anywhere I wanted. Coach Huet arrived shortly before I left so we shared the 5 lanes. It was not *nearly* as nervewracking and embarrassing as I'd imagined.

When I arrived, I explained to the lifeguard (Anne) that I'd never done real lap swimming and that I would appear to be incompetent but likely wouldn't drown. She was terrific - even watched me for a few laps and gave me tips to improve the efficiency of my stroke. The laps were about 50% front crawl, 25% breast stroke, 25% side stroke, plus I tried a little water running with the belt for a break in the middle. Like skate skiing, I'm not good at swimming so it's an intense workout.

Definitely a positive experience and I will go back for sure, but it's so time consuming that it won't become a regular thing.

Each week I get a detailed report on the Orienteering Ontario website, including the countries from which people have accessed it over the past 2 weeks. It is common to see a single random visit from a country like Romania or Switzerland one week, then nothing else from that place for many weeks. I was curious to see that we had a visitor from Libya two weeks in a row - surely an anomaly. Well, this week we had *3* visits from Libya! What are we doing to increase our popularity in Libya???

As a reward to myself after a week of illness + major volunteer effort, I headed up to Highlands Nordic for an afternoon ski. It wasn't in the plans but when I saw the forecast for rain and +7C tomorrow, I dropped everything.

It's very wintry up there. It has been wet snow recently, and lots of people had skied there so the tracks were fast and slick. Even with waxless skis, the conditions required me to focus on good technique, which I need to do more often anyway. It was absolutely wonderful. Other than the gaggle of schoolkids near the chalet, I met one other skier on the trails in 2 hours. Light snow began to fall early on. Awesome. For the first time, I skied part of the time with podcasts - Endurance Planet (thanks for the tip, Harps). It went pretty well.

We all know that money can't buy happiness, and new gear can't make you go faster - but new gear *can* buy happiness so I now have my first-ever pair of classic racing poles. We do so much off-trail classic skiing that I've always just used medium baskets and sturdier poles, even when we're at ski centres. I did my 2nd loop with the new poles and felt much more professional. ;)

This was a Laurel and Hardy-esque burst of activity around mid-day. I'm lucky it ended up being a comedy and not a tragedy. BazingaDog escaped from the house, chased a squirrel, then ran over to our neighbour's 45-acre forested property. I couldn't chase him because he thinks it's a game but I couldn't let him out of my sight so close to the road either. So this "workout" was a series of 15 meter snow sprints (which seemed effective at catching his attention and attracting him) and a couple of football tackles where I attempted to grab him.

He'd originally escaped through the garage when I'd cracked open the door from the house to hit the garage door opener. The first time I caught him, I managed to haul him back to the house with great effort, and I used all my strength to heave his unwilling 71 lb body through the front door. I'd forgotten that when he bolted in the first place, I hadn't had time to close the inside door from the house to the garage, which is right beside our front door. So as I stood outside bent over with my hands on my thighs, panting after the effort of catching him and relieved almost to the point of tears that he hadn't been killed by a car, a black puppy dashed out of the garage and down the driveway. Argghhh!! So I did two repeats of this workout. It turns out I'm pretty good at football tackles. Who knew?