Training Log Archive: BashIn the 7 days ending Apr 8, 2012:
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Sunday Apr 8, 2012 #
Note
(rest day)
Family Easter. Consumed chocolate - for the antioxidants, of course.
Saturday Apr 7, 2012 #
9 AM
Orienteering race 4:57:26 [3] 28.94 km (10:17 / km) +543m 9:24 / km
shoes: Salomon XA Pro - Navy 2nd pair
Salomon Dontgetlost Giant's Rib Raid, St. Catharines. 'Bent was busy with Passover so this year I put together a female team with Crash and Ang. Crash is a veteran adventure runner while Ang would be a first-timer. I met her when she beat me at the Bruce Peninsula Multisport Race so I knew she would do well. She and Crash have competed against each other in XTerra events in the U.S. but I don't think they had formally met before. It was a treat for me to race with two strong women who were patient enough to wait for me to catch up!
Weather was perfect for this year's event - sunny, cool and dry. I'd only orienteered on the Niagara Peninsula once before so I was keen to see some new territory. It was beautiful escarpment terrain!
After a bus ride to the start and an initial trail run, teams spread out quickly. We worked well together and had lots of fun - a theme that continued all day. We spent a little extra time getting to #5 after we drifted too far up the canyon as we crossed it. We ran smack into Hammer at the top and apparently he got my confused reaction on video when I realized where we were. But for the most part, things went smoothly.
That all changed during the 2.5 km trail run between #8 and #9. It was a rocky, technical trail with lots of opportunities to fall or turn an ankle. We were running at a good pace when Crash suddenly flew forward in a Superman move that was stopped by her thumb and index finger hitting a tree. OUCH!
At first she turned down the offer of my first aid kit but after a short distance, the bleeding and pain were so severe that we had to stop and patch her up. Her thumbnail was half torn off and her hand was swelling up. As the day went on, she became unable to move her thumb normally, and it appeared that something was likely broken. She is such a tough cookie that she just kept on racing. "They can't do anything about small broken bones anyway." She's the one in the pink with the taped-up thumb.
We had one more set of controls to do in the Alpha Stage of this multi-stage race, then we had a 40-minute break that included a short bus ride and some time to work on our maps for the Beta Stage.
The rest between stages was pleasant although it was easy to slip out of race mode and I heard about some teams who made huge errors at the start of the Beta Stage. We fuelled up on goodies and headed out feeling great, plus or minus one broken hand.
The Beta Stage was crammed with challenges - Walk The Line, the Relay of Lactic Hell, a long Bearing/Pace exercise and lots of escarpment climbing. Once again, things went smoothly. I sent Ang and Crash on the long run to pick up C and D in the Matrix while I took the shorter route to get A and B.
We arrived near the finish line where we received the map for the final Omega Stage. It consisted of contours and a railway and not much else. We could draw in as much info as we wanted from the master map. I thought I had enough to go on but the vegetation was thick and we managed to miss seeing #1 on our first time past it. We followed the gully all the way to the golf course, then came back on a higher line and located the flag. Boo - based on the splits it was at least a 7-minute error. The remainder of the controls went well - better than the 1st and 2nd place teams who made a major error on #3, making the rest of us feel better by proving that they're human.
Fun team and great racing! We were 11th overall and 1st female. Poor Crash had to go off with the medics at the finish so we didn't get to sit on the grass as a team and enjoy the sunshine. Another time!
Thanks to the organizers, volunteers and sponsors for another fantastic adventure run. A ton of work goes on behind the scenes. Much appreciated! :)
(Garmin data adjusted since I left it on for the shuttle bus ride during the race. Race time was 5:37 including the bus.)
(Photo Credits: Mike Waddington, I think)
Weather was perfect for this year's event - sunny, cool and dry. I'd only orienteered on the Niagara Peninsula once before so I was keen to see some new territory. It was beautiful escarpment terrain!
After a bus ride to the start and an initial trail run, teams spread out quickly. We worked well together and had lots of fun - a theme that continued all day. We spent a little extra time getting to #5 after we drifted too far up the canyon as we crossed it. We ran smack into Hammer at the top and apparently he got my confused reaction on video when I realized where we were. But for the most part, things went smoothly.
That all changed during the 2.5 km trail run between #8 and #9. It was a rocky, technical trail with lots of opportunities to fall or turn an ankle. We were running at a good pace when Crash suddenly flew forward in a Superman move that was stopped by her thumb and index finger hitting a tree. OUCH!
At first she turned down the offer of my first aid kit but after a short distance, the bleeding and pain were so severe that we had to stop and patch her up. Her thumbnail was half torn off and her hand was swelling up. As the day went on, she became unable to move her thumb normally, and it appeared that something was likely broken. She is such a tough cookie that she just kept on racing. "They can't do anything about small broken bones anyway." She's the one in the pink with the taped-up thumb.
We had one more set of controls to do in the Alpha Stage of this multi-stage race, then we had a 40-minute break that included a short bus ride and some time to work on our maps for the Beta Stage.
The rest between stages was pleasant although it was easy to slip out of race mode and I heard about some teams who made huge errors at the start of the Beta Stage. We fuelled up on goodies and headed out feeling great, plus or minus one broken hand.
The Beta Stage was crammed with challenges - Walk The Line, the Relay of Lactic Hell, a long Bearing/Pace exercise and lots of escarpment climbing. Once again, things went smoothly. I sent Ang and Crash on the long run to pick up C and D in the Matrix while I took the shorter route to get A and B.
We arrived near the finish line where we received the map for the final Omega Stage. It consisted of contours and a railway and not much else. We could draw in as much info as we wanted from the master map. I thought I had enough to go on but the vegetation was thick and we managed to miss seeing #1 on our first time past it. We followed the gully all the way to the golf course, then came back on a higher line and located the flag. Boo - based on the splits it was at least a 7-minute error. The remainder of the controls went well - better than the 1st and 2nd place teams who made a major error on #3, making the rest of us feel better by proving that they're human.
Fun team and great racing! We were 11th overall and 1st female. Poor Crash had to go off with the medics at the finish so we didn't get to sit on the grass as a team and enjoy the sunshine. Another time!
Thanks to the organizers, volunteers and sponsors for another fantastic adventure run. A ton of work goes on behind the scenes. Much appreciated! :)
(Garmin data adjusted since I left it on for the shuttle bus ride during the race. Race time was 5:37 including the bus.)
(Photo Credits: Mike Waddington, I think)
Thursday Apr 5, 2012 #
Strength & Mobility (Core) 25:00 [2]
Hard Core Live with Caron. Two sets of 20 of everything. Ouch.
Power Yoga 50:00 [1]
A nice reminder of which parts of my body are still bashed up from mountain biking! Very good for me.
1 PM
Note
So today was my CBC Radio interview on adventure racing and... I don't think I did well. I know some people will say, "Oh c'mon, you always say that" but hear me out. I *do* like the interview I did for Mark Arnold's Adventure Racing podcast (Episode 3) so I can be positive sometimes! :)
I arrived in a mildly nervous state but when I entered the CBC building, my heart rate shot through the roof. I am a huge, longtime CBC Radio fan. (For some Americans, maybe NPR brings out equivalent feelings?) Inside the building, there were 10' high photos of CBC personalities. The CBC museum was across the hall from the security desk where I checked in. I thought I saw Jian Ghomeshi whiz past me in sunglasses. I was sweating; I started yoga breathing to relax,1,2,3,4,5...
The CBC people I dealt with were super friendly and highly professional. Every day they bring in people who have never been on the radio, don't know the correct way to sit near a microphone (not in front of your mouth, I learned), pop their "p" sounds and get nervous. They made me feel comfortable instantly - phew. While waiting, I had the choice of sitting in the open office, the green room or the control room where the sound engineer was managing dozens of screens and controls to record the interview before mine. The latter was clearly the coolest opportunity!
The host, Mary Ito, is a master of using words and facial expressions to encourage the interviewee; she made me feel as if everything I said was fascinating, even when I knew it wasn't.
So what went wrong? (Man, I would love another chance because I learned so much!) In the pre-interview with the producer, we explored a wide range of topics. By the end, I felt we'd covered much of what adventure racing is all about. But in the real interview, there is much less time. The host focuses on the pieces of the pre-interview that the show's staff felt would be most interesting to their audience. There's no time for the complete picture. Unlike a regular conversation, you generally don't get to return to a topic if you left something out in your first answer. (Like when I explained what AR was and neglected to mention that it included navigation - urgh...)
I knew that's how it would work so I should have thought more about the key concepts I wanted to get across. Politicians are great at giving brief answers to questions then steering the conversation to related topics. On the other hand, I know that radio hosts and editors are skilled at thwarting that technique so maybe it wouldn't have worked anyway!
My engineering brain is a hindrance. I answer questions literally when sometimes I could skim over topics I'd rather spend less time on. Also, my tendency is to go into too much detail. (If you read my log, you already know this.) When I write freelance, I have to do a lot of editing and compressing after the first draft but if I get too detailed on the radio, it means that I only get to tell the first part of the story. For example, in describing the Giant's Rib Raid, I don't think I got beyond planning the maps before it was time to move on to the next topic. Every answer should have been an "elevator speech" with the most important points packed up front. (Much of this entry is a "note to self" in case I ever do another interview but maybe it will be useful to someone else.)
Bottom line... I think the interview will turn out to be more about me than I'd expected rather than the sport in general. They were interested in the fact that I dropped phys ed when I was 12 and only got back into sports as a masters athlete. They were interested in danger, injuries and death in AR - as the general public often is - also the challenge, competitiveness and the long races. I can't remember if I ever said AR was *fun* or expressed my passion for the sport and the lifestyle. I also wanted to stress how accessible it is. I kept thinking I'd get to this stuff but then the time ran out. That's why I think I blew it. It wasn't the producer's or interviewer's fault; in fact, from their point of view, it probably went OK. I feel badly because I failed to convey the big picture of what makes AR so amazing. Regardless, it was a cool experience. Just wish I'd done a better job.
I arrived in a mildly nervous state but when I entered the CBC building, my heart rate shot through the roof. I am a huge, longtime CBC Radio fan. (For some Americans, maybe NPR brings out equivalent feelings?) Inside the building, there were 10' high photos of CBC personalities. The CBC museum was across the hall from the security desk where I checked in. I thought I saw Jian Ghomeshi whiz past me in sunglasses. I was sweating; I started yoga breathing to relax,1,2,3,4,5...
The CBC people I dealt with were super friendly and highly professional. Every day they bring in people who have never been on the radio, don't know the correct way to sit near a microphone (not in front of your mouth, I learned), pop their "p" sounds and get nervous. They made me feel comfortable instantly - phew. While waiting, I had the choice of sitting in the open office, the green room or the control room where the sound engineer was managing dozens of screens and controls to record the interview before mine. The latter was clearly the coolest opportunity!
The host, Mary Ito, is a master of using words and facial expressions to encourage the interviewee; she made me feel as if everything I said was fascinating, even when I knew it wasn't.
So what went wrong? (Man, I would love another chance because I learned so much!) In the pre-interview with the producer, we explored a wide range of topics. By the end, I felt we'd covered much of what adventure racing is all about. But in the real interview, there is much less time. The host focuses on the pieces of the pre-interview that the show's staff felt would be most interesting to their audience. There's no time for the complete picture. Unlike a regular conversation, you generally don't get to return to a topic if you left something out in your first answer. (Like when I explained what AR was and neglected to mention that it included navigation - urgh...)
I knew that's how it would work so I should have thought more about the key concepts I wanted to get across. Politicians are great at giving brief answers to questions then steering the conversation to related topics. On the other hand, I know that radio hosts and editors are skilled at thwarting that technique so maybe it wouldn't have worked anyway!
My engineering brain is a hindrance. I answer questions literally when sometimes I could skim over topics I'd rather spend less time on. Also, my tendency is to go into too much detail. (If you read my log, you already know this.) When I write freelance, I have to do a lot of editing and compressing after the first draft but if I get too detailed on the radio, it means that I only get to tell the first part of the story. For example, in describing the Giant's Rib Raid, I don't think I got beyond planning the maps before it was time to move on to the next topic. Every answer should have been an "elevator speech" with the most important points packed up front. (Much of this entry is a "note to self" in case I ever do another interview but maybe it will be useful to someone else.)
Bottom line... I think the interview will turn out to be more about me than I'd expected rather than the sport in general. They were interested in the fact that I dropped phys ed when I was 12 and only got back into sports as a masters athlete. They were interested in danger, injuries and death in AR - as the general public often is - also the challenge, competitiveness and the long races. I can't remember if I ever said AR was *fun* or expressed my passion for the sport and the lifestyle. I also wanted to stress how accessible it is. I kept thinking I'd get to this stuff but then the time ran out. That's why I think I blew it. It wasn't the producer's or interviewer's fault; in fact, from their point of view, it probably went OK. I feel badly because I failed to convey the big picture of what makes AR so amazing. Regardless, it was a cool experience. Just wish I'd done a better job.
Wednesday Apr 4, 2012 #
Running (Trail) 1:10:00 [2] 10.3 km (6:48 / km)
shoes: Salomon SLAB-3 XT Wings
I pulled out all the stops today to try to stop the "knife slicing my leg open like an overstuffed haggis" feeling. I used Leukotape and a tensor bandage to hold my injured adductor together and wore Salomon compression capris in case any body part wanted to veer off course. Much to my relief, it worked and the major pain in today's run came from my bruised and inflamed kneecap, which at least is something I can understand. This excruciating dent in my thigh is brand new territory!
BazingaDog and I had an excellent run around the rolling, twisty singletrack of Palgrave East. It was a "dog-enhanced" run, meaning that one of us stopped to swim, sniff and relieve himself an astounding number of times. The late afternoon light was beautiful, the air crisp and my mood jubilant in the way it always is when I've spent time fretting that I might lose my ability to run. I won't push my luck before the Salomon Dontgetlost Giant's Rib Raid though. Now that I know running is possible, I'll stick to other things for a couple of days to encourage some healing.
BazingaDog and I had an excellent run around the rolling, twisty singletrack of Palgrave East. It was a "dog-enhanced" run, meaning that one of us stopped to swim, sniff and relieve himself an astounding number of times. The late afternoon light was beautiful, the air crisp and my mood jubilant in the way it always is when I've spent time fretting that I might lose my ability to run. I won't push my luck before the Salomon Dontgetlost Giant's Rib Raid though. Now that I know running is possible, I'll stick to other things for a couple of days to encourage some healing.
Strength & Mobility (Legs) 30:00 [2]
6 PM
Note
Coming off a week of mountain biking, I'm extra-impressed at Danny Hart's amazing skills in the mud at the 2011 UCI Downhill World Championship. But the real reason I'm sharing this is that I couldn't stop laughing at the overly-excited announcers.
Tuesday Apr 3, 2012 #
Running (Trail) 4:30 [2] 0.6 km (7:30 / km)
shoes: Salomon XA Pro Ult - 2 Tomato
Trail run fail. :( My injured leg hurt too much. Not so much that I couldn't have run if a mountain lion were chasing me, but enough that it seemed wiser to rest it for another day. Crap. STORM is out there doing 60K runs to get ready for the Death Race and I am doing 600 meters.
1 PM
Note
'Bent was chatting this morning with CBC Radio producer Sandy Mowat - son of author Farley Mowat, who lived across the road from our place before we moved here. Sandy had heard about the Salomon Dontgetlost Giant's Rib Raid in St. Catharines, and somehow this conversation evolved into me doing a radio interview about adventure racing on this Saturday's Ontario-wide Fresh Air show.
I did a pre-interview with a producer today and will go in for the pre-taped (and thus editable - phew!) interview on Thursday afternoon. They are very curious about why people would do this sort of thing. I'm nervous but I'll do my best to represent. Ironically, I'll be racing that morning so I won't get to hear the show until later.
I did a pre-interview with a producer today and will go in for the pre-taped (and thus editable - phew!) interview on Thursday afternoon. They are very curious about why people would do this sort of thing. I'm nervous but I'll do my best to represent. Ironically, I'll be racing that morning so I won't get to hear the show until later.
Monday Apr 2, 2012 #
Running (Trail) 40:50 [2] 5.7 km (7:10 / km)
shoes: Salomon SLAB-3 XT Wings
Home sweet home. BazingaDog and I did an easy lap of Palgrave West. I hear that trilliums are out in Hockley Valley but I didn't see any today. Ferns and bloodroots (not yet in flower) were out. No sign of poison ivy yet but I bet it'll show up earlier than it ever has.
My stoopid bruised thigh continues to be mega-sore when I run. I've been googling "contusion" and "fascia tear" for ideas. It's only been 4 days and I haven't given it much RICE so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Don't worry, Ang and Crash, I'll be fine for the Salomon Dontgetlost Giant's Rib Raid as long as I can give it some compression.
My stoopid bruised thigh continues to be mega-sore when I run. I've been googling "contusion" and "fascia tear" for ideas. It's only been 4 days and I haven't given it much RICE so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Don't worry, Ang and Crash, I'll be fine for the Salomon Dontgetlost Giant's Rib Raid as long as I can give it some compression.
12 PM
Note
'Bent and I listened to a podcast on the weekend where a sports nutrition expert took a question from an athlete who experienced chocolate cravings after exercise. The expert said this was likely due to a magnesium deficiency and outlined a number of ways to "fix the problem". Yikes, this is like a teenager announcing that he is gay and receiving suggestions from an expert on how to cure himself. (Well, maybe not that bad...)
To be fair, there is some evidence that links chocolate cravings/consumption with magnesium.
There is also a study on Pubmed suggesting that "habitual use of cocoa as a dietary supplement favors correction of the negative effects of long-term feeding with a diet moderately deficient in Mg".
So chocolate makes you healthier! Furthermore, a recent study showed that people who consumed the most chocolate had the lowest Body Mass Index, regardless of activity level.
I rest my case. And if there is any evidence contrary to what I want to believe, I don't want to know about it. It's the same way I feel about research on the health impacts of coffee!
To be fair, there is some evidence that links chocolate cravings/consumption with magnesium.
There is also a study on Pubmed suggesting that "habitual use of cocoa as a dietary supplement favors correction of the negative effects of long-term feeding with a diet moderately deficient in Mg".
So chocolate makes you healthier! Furthermore, a recent study showed that people who consumed the most chocolate had the lowest Body Mass Index, regardless of activity level.
I rest my case. And if there is any evidence contrary to what I want to believe, I don't want to know about it. It's the same way I feel about research on the health impacts of coffee!
1 PM
Note
Mountain bikers... don't drink from muddy bottles and avoid riding through areas with lots of animal poop. "A recent study from the journal Epidemiology and Infection found that mountain biking in muddy conditions risks campylobacter infection." Revy, isn't campylobacter what hit you in RTNX?