Training Log Archive: Bash

Thomass Eliminator at Morrison Forest - the fun finale of this winter's age/gender handicapped, best-4-of-8 orienteering race series. Ironically, it was uncomfortably hot since we haven't acclimatized to this weird summer weather.

The Male and Overall Series winner, Hammer, had already been determined since the only person with enough points to possibly challenge him - Andrei L - wasn't there. Hammer raced hard anyway and finished 2nd.

The Junior Male winner, Teo Mlynczyk, and Junior Female winner, AdventureGirl! also had locks on their series victories.

The only series podium position up for grabs was the Female winner. AdventureGirl! was in contention for that one too and needed to beat me by 7 positions for the win. We enjoyed a lot of pre-race trash talk, as did Hammer/Dad. I wondered what the heck a 14-year-old would do with the bottle of ice wine designated for the female winner. AG!'s parents figured it would make a lovely gift.

The Eliminator is a set of 3 sprint orienteering races. The top 20 people in the first race advance to the second round. Everyone else can do all three races but they no longer have a chance to win. The top 10 people in the second race stay in contention for the third race, which determines the top race rankings.

Because I'd trained on a different map scale yesterday, I reminded myself that things would come up more quickly than expected. I passed a trail - yup, *way* too fast. Oh, and there's another trail faster than expected. (*Too* fast again - hello??) I turned on that trail and headed to the control site - except it wasn't there. Back and forth, totally confused - there was nothing difficult about this, so what was I missing? I knew there was no way I could make the top 20 after wasting this much time so the rest of the day would have to be mental training instead of racing.

I'd like to say I relocated but the truth is, I saw people running into a nearby block of forest and realized that I must be on a trail parallel to the one I'd wanted, even though I didn't figure out my error until after the race. (I'd over-compensated in my mind for the map scale and this was compounded by failing to notice a trail on the map.) I pushed hard on the remaining hills and trails so that my result wouldn't be too embarrassing after all the trash talk. As I came into the finish, Pathetic said, "There's #19." Soooo lucky. AdventureGirl! placed 1st. We both moved on to the next round.

The second sprint went through some nasty vegetation and when I returned, someone pointed out how bloody my right arm was. The nav went well and there were some hard legs of running in the heat. I managed to squeak into 9th place. AG! placed 1st again.

Final round... Lots of running in the heat again - not my strong point. AdventureGirl! won the race and I came 7th 8th [results updated today, leading to edits in this paragraph]... AG! had won the series! But it wasn't over yet... Noticing that he had missed a control, FunRun (who was looking strong out there today) disqualified himself from the top 10. That moved me into 6th 7th so AG! and I shared the overall Female title and she took the Junior Female win. She will be on Canada's national team in a couple of years so there isn't much longer to try to compete with her!



Big thanks to the Gators for organizing this Orienteering Ontario fundraiser event and setting three fun sprints for us with different start/finish locations. Tough logistics but it turned out well!

Nav training at Rocky Ridge with emphasis on careful map and terrain reading, not on finding the flags as quickly as possible. This type of terrain will never be my strength but I'll keep working on it since it makes navigation everywhere else seem easier. I was pleased with my ability to relocate - not so pleased that I had to do it several times! Beautiful, sunny spring day - I was *way* too warm!

Today Tiny and I registered for the Oil Creek 100K ultrarun in Pennsylvania in October. Poor Mrs. Gally tried to sign up just 2.5 hours after registration opened but it was already sold out. Someone less tough would have given up but Mrs. G simply signed up for the 100-mile event instead. She's one of my heroes! :)
http://www.oilcreek100.org/Home

There is still room in the 100-miler if anyone wants 4 UTMB points.

'Bent and I ended up in Caledon East with two vehicles last night so we drove my car home, and today we rode back to pick up his van. The route was mostly rail trail although we went through Palgrave West to get to Duffy's Lane. Parts of it were quite muddy so we had to hike-a-bike to avoid damaging the trails. It's too bad the equestrians don't have a similar option as they are trashing the trails as they always do in springtime - even parts of the rail trail, which is not all dry yet. I guess it's going to be road riding and paved trail riding for the next week.

This gave us a nice excuse to enjoy a yummy Crash-made lunch at the Caledon Hills Coffee Company and a wee shopping expedition to the Caledon Hills Cycling shop. We now have Kahtoola Microspikes. What a relief to finally be one of the "in crowd"!

Hard Core Live with Caron

Lots of balance and hip stretching, plus a few poses in accordance with tonight's special theme: "Do it against the wall". (Apparently, it improves your form. :) )

Recent research suggests that "enhanced recovery" methods such as ice baths and NSAIDs make you feel good but may reduce the training adaptation you would have received from that workout. They suggest saving those enhanced methods for times when feeling good is more important than the training benefit, e.g. before a major race.
<http://www.outsideonline.com/fitness/recovery/Stre...>

Standard recovery techniques are still recommended, however:
- A good night's sleep
- Post-workout recovery drink/snack

Another trail run before another late dinner - this time a Hockley Loop. Conditions have changed a huge amount in two weeks. Aside from the dry gravel road sections, the trail today was about 1/3 ice, 1/3 soft mud and 1/3 good traction. It was harder work than usual with some luge runs to contend with on steep hills but overall, it felt more like a run than a slog.

Gotta keep doing this hilly loop till it feels easy again. Today definitely wasn't it.

Good podcasts again - Best of Q, Under the Influence and Laugh Out Loud (all CBC), and This American Life (NPR). Interesting interview on Q with a cookbook author who creates recipes for the parts of the animal that people seldom eat. She argues that we ought to eat them for ethical reasons. She personally doesn't enjoy eyeballs all that much and thinks that tripe may be the most challenging animal part for a lot of people to eat.

Another interesting interview was with an unemployed man who bears a strong resemblance to Barack Obama. In spite of attempts to get a job similar to his old one with a phone company, he has been forced to support his family by accepting Obama impersonation gigs, e.g. movies, appearances at events, etc. In some cases, he gets treated much better than he is accustomed to in his regular life in the Bronx but he has also been physically attacked and verbally abused, and has received many racial insults during his Obama appearances. He would rather not do it but needs the money.

Gotta confess, lately I haven't been diligent about taking along the mandatory whistle in short orienteering races. A whistle may have saved a teenaged orienteer's life on Saturday after an unusual accident at a meet in the U.S.
http://www2.hernandotoday.com/news/news/2012/mar/1...

BulletDog and I did a tour of Palgrave East and met up with 'Bent and BazingaDog on their commute run home. There's still lots of ice on the trails but it's no longer rock-hard or marble-smooth so it was actually my favourite running surface today. Most of the trails were thick, gloppy mud where our feet sank 5-8 cm with each step. Running was awkward at times but on the bright side, it was easy on the joints, great for building strength and the best way to spend Happy Hour before dinner. :)

Post-run, we're now in that time of year when it takes at least 5 minutes to clean the mud off each dog. Yet another reason I love long snowy winters!

I've heard about The Perfect Runner documentary film from at least a dozen different sources so they seem to have a great PR machine. Until now, I didn't know that the film touches on the Canadian Death Race. Cool! You can see it this Thursday at 8 p.m. on CBC's The Nature of Things.

And I thought 'Bent, Revy and I had a lot of XC skis... Kikkan Randall, this year's World Cup sprint champion (first American woman ever to hold that title), has 30 pairs in her quiver!
http://gearjunkie.com/kikkan-randall-world-cup-cro...

Poison Spider Bicycles in Moab is sold out of standard-priced bikes in my size so I'm forced to rent one of their High End bikes, the Pivot Mach 5.7, winner of the 2011 Bicycling Magazine Editor's Choice Award for Best 26" Trail Bike. Tough break. ;)

For those of you who have been to Moab, what specific places would you recommend? Bike rides, trail runs, restaurants, sightseeing, coffee shops, art galleries... whatever!