Training Log Archive: Bash

Selections from "Questions to Refocus Your Mind":

1) What can you do today that you were not capable of a year ago?
2) What is the #1 motivator in your life right now?
3) If you had to move 3000 miles away, what one thing would you miss the most?
4) What has fear of failure stopped you from doing?
5) What stands between you and what you want?
6) What do you need to spend more time doing?
7) What memory from the past year makes you smile the most?
8) What's something you said you've never do but have since done?
9) What didn't last forever but was still worth your while?
10) If you could go back in time and tell a younger version of yourself one thing, what would it be?

Thomass Stars at Sudden Tract - A fun race course where Tiny made excellent use of a small area with intricate terrain. I felt mentally distracted by non-race concerns during the first 10 minutes, then I got with the program. The result was a sloppy route to #1 and cautious travel through the rocky, ankle-twisty woods until I felt more focused.

I had a couple of bobbles later. When I started north from #6 into the Thomass Box, a too-quick glance at the way the control numbers were printed on the 2nd map made me briefly think that #6 and #7 were reversed. I started to run back, thinking I'd punched the wrong one, then looked at Map #1 and realized I was OK. Later, I ran about 50 m past the small depression where #8 was located. I really didn't have a good plan there - just took off from the corner of a trail on a rough bearing, not remembering that I could run close to the depression without seeing the flag, so I ought to be more precise. It looked like AdventureGirl! made the same error. A very good orienteer who shall remain nameless got #8 and A mixed up, so I don't feel too bad. :)

Then it was a fairly straightforward - but physical - route via 4 more controls to the finish with some hill climbing to keep it interesting. Hammer passed me before #12, then it was a trail run to the end. We ran past Leanimal, Weeanimal and I-Fo. I-Fo (age 3) called out, "Go Barb! Go Barb!" (as instructed by Leanimal). Then he pointed behind me and said, "There's my Daddy!" Rats! If Hansel was behind me, then I was going to be passed by at least one more person. I wasn't going to make it easy for him though, so I pushed harder. I still couldn't hear footsteps behind me on the frozen trail - very strange. I pushed more, seeing the final bend in the trail up ahead. Was there really a chance I could hold off Hansel? Meanwhile, Hammer turned around and saw me gaining on him. He gave me a "WTF?" look and accelerated on his sore knee. I wasn't even thinking about him - just trying to see how long I could stay ahead of Hansel. As it turned out... a fair amount of time, given that I-Fo apparently said, "There's my Daddy" *every* time he saw an approaching runner. :)

Young Teo Mlynczyk was 1st, Hammer was 2nd and I was 3rd - just ahead of AdventureGirl! who sealed her Female Thomass Series victory today. Great job! :)

(Note: forgot to turn off GPS so ignore the final walkabout!)

Thanks to the Stars for a fun day in the woods. Harps organized a group lunch at Moose Winooski's afterward which was a nice chance to catch up with folks. In the photo below, see if you can pick out: Phatty, I-Fo, Weeanimal, Hansel, Moose.



Some day when I-Fo and Weeanimal are at the World AR Champs together, we're going to haul out this photo and embarrass them!

RIDES: Southern California DVD + warm-up/cooldown. Lots of climbing. Both 'Bent and I were dripping with sweat by the end. Nice to be back on the bike after running more often last month.

Ave Watts before cooldown: 160
Ave Cadence: 72 - Much of this ride was hill climbing where we were supposed to stay in the 60-80 rpm range.
Ave Speed: 25 kph

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You're on your own.
And you know what you know.
And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...

Wise words to plan your training and more
From The Lorax Oh, the Places You'll Go

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

One of the challenges of preparing for a mountain ultrarun is doing downhill-specific training. I think I've found the solution: Cheese Rolling as cross training. Thanks to Cookie Monster's log for the idea. I'm sure FB could get us all set up with dairy products for practice.

One reason Facebook is fun... I sometimes forget what it was like to be in public school. A young friend posted this status today. :)

I HAD MY FIRST CONCUSSION!!!!!!!!!!! and i got my fish :)

I love Internet translators. Here's what top adventure racer Tuomas Sovijärvi had to say about the new, cool-looking Patagonia International Marathon. (Original was in Finnish and undoubtedly a little different!)

"After all, thou there is, first, a more maratoninsa Patagoniassa NIGSA Torres Del Paine with others at the end of September. It should then be baked in the same activity, etc. can easily be trekkailua reissuun. Just spoke with were that it would be reasonable that Mikon fine, the route of the run to display the engine but it is a little longer than the marathon, and then koitos."

I especially like the idea of something being "baked in the same activity". I may start using that expression.

Even though I'm feeling totally ready for a break, I didn't want to miss our weekly class with C3. Just my luck, this week was a tough one - higher intensity than usual for both Core and Yoga sessions. I couldn't believe it when she said we were going to do Tabata core!! There were just 4 different exercises that addressed different aspects of core strength. For each one, we did about 10 sets of 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off. People who have done Tabata running will empathize. The reps were quick, e.g. we did crunches with legs straight up in the air at a rate of one crunch per second to the "Tabata music". It was awesome - when it was all over.

Yoga was also a step up in intensity. Most of the class was based around Downward Dog - making our way into all kinds of different poses that we normally enter another way, then making our way back to Downward Dog. It was cool to see Jeff and Leesa Wright and Adam Price there tonight!

When BazingaPuppy joined our family in August, nobody knew for sure how old he was since he came from a rescue organization. Based on the development of his teeth and other features, the veterinarian guessed his approximate age. Since everyone needs to have a birthday, we did the math and picked March 1. In honour of his big day, on Attackpoint I am officially promoting him from BazingaPuppy to BazingaDog. (Real life name: Brody) Happy Birthday, little guy!

Thanks to the February Challenge, this was my 32nd day in a row without a rest day - I am soooo ready. My body has felt pleasantly fatigued for the past 7-10 days, including at the start line of last weekend's ski marathon - not exactly the feeling I wanted to have!

But I had promised Mrs. Gally ages ago that I'd do a Hockley Loop today, and Harps came up to join us.



It was a wintry run, starting at the parking lot and going counterclockwise for a change. Because 10-15 cm of snow fell up here yesterday followed by freezing rain, we broke a fair bit of trail and missed a few turns where the trail couldn't be seen in the snow. To be fair, we mostly did that in order to leave tracks to confuse Tiny and M&M, who are doing the loop on Saturday. ;)



In spite of the fresh snow, ice-coated branches and grey skies, it was a warm winter day - nice for running. I tried to convince Mrs. G and Harps to just stay the first hour with me, then go faster on their own but they graciously kept the team together and humoured me when I hiked uphill sections. Good company and conversation, great workout in the snow (30 minutes slower than last year's PB in dry weather), only one crash on snow-covered ice (me for the 2nd day in a row - sigh...) Lots of fun - thanks! :)

Many of you have met Carbon. Well, now Carbon's Offset has finally joined Attackpoint with a killer race report from last weekend's Cookie Race where he left "Mom" in his dust in the final kilometer. Welcome aboard!
http://www.ar.attackpoint.org/log.jsp/user_10785

Last day of Ken Niemimaa's February "29 Leagues in a Month" Challenge. The rule was to run at least 5K/day (or ski, in my case). It wasn't permitted to miss a day, even if you made up the kilometers. Most of us made it to the end but a few people had to drop out due to work or injuries. It was fun to get acquainted with more ultrarunners; we posted daily on a Facebook Event page.

Several participants ran 400-500+ kilometers in February - wow! My totals were much more modest - about 200K of XC skiing and 150K of running, all of it outdoors, mostly on trails.

It was an interesting experiment - a fun variation on my usual training where I learned a few things. I now know that I can fit a 5K run into any day if I want to - regardless of weather, busy schedule, fatigue, etc. However, I'd rather do 3-5 longer runs each week. Also, as an adventure racer, I'd like days where I don't think about running at all - days where I can focus on biking, strength or whatever. Lastly, I learned that I benefit from rest days. It was good to see that I could always feel pretty good doing a 5K run but there were times when I knew my body would be stronger if I gave it a day off.

Anyway... today's run was a circuitous, snowy single track route through Palgrave East in freezing rain accompanied by BulletDog. Our destination was 'Bent's office. His van wouldn't start so he had taken my car at the last minute. Because the bad weather will make for nasty driving on our country road tonight, he had planned to snowshoe home but I needed my car here tomorrow morning to get to Hockley Valley to meet Mrs. Gally.

I ran with "princess arms" ready to save myself from hidden ice patches under the new snow. In the end, it didn't help. On a steep downhill, I had a hard fall on my right hip on something sharp, which gave my sore rotator cuff a good tweak as I protected my head. (Trying to avoid Leanimal's flashing lights.) No major harm done - just another bruise to add to my collection. It's amazing how the nastiest day rarely seems that bad once you're outside wearing proper gear. It was fun to be in the woods!

Google's privacy policy changes tomorrow, allowing them to combine data from all their products, e.g. Google searches, Youtube watching, map use, etc. You have a last chance today to clear your Google history and turn off the history feature if you don't want it to be used for targeted advertising.

I was amazed that I could go back and see searches I'd done in 2006. It was actually kind of interesting - like reading a personal journal. But in the end, I deleted it all.

Another February Challenge run around Palgrave West with bad footing - a mix of crusty snow, glare ice and frozen mud starting to thaw. To increase the degree of difficulty, I took BazingaPuppy on leash. Stop NOW! Interesting smell by this tree! Oh wow, a deer! Let's go!!!!!"

Apparently, I am a "snowshoeer". :)

Have any of you endurance athlete types ever experienced low white blood cell counts? There are studies showing that some types of athletes have depressed WBC counts but researchers rarely look at subjects who do the crazy things that many of us do. Some causes of low WBC counts are not as nice, so I'm keen on this theory. :)

Today I ran on dirt roads that were a mix of gooey mud and slush. I guess trails would have been a better choice. Everything will need to be washed *before* it goes into the laundry!

I tried my new iPhone metronome app for the last 750 meters and confirmed that my natural running cadence is tooooo slooooooow. I couldn't run at the recommended 180 bpm so I turned it down to 170 and was just able to keep up. Within seconds, my hamstring felt sore, which it never does.

I wonder whether running cadence is like cycling cadence. I read a study showing that the most efficient cycling cadence for a particular cyclist varies with the power (Watts) he or she generates. According to them, I should aim for a somewhat lower cadence than a Tour de France rider, which seems logical. For running, I wonder if 180 is too high for a less powerful runner like me. It will certainly take me awhile to master 170!