Training Log Archive: Bash

Downtown Toronto training... All-you can eat Asian brunch at Spring Rolls followed by "Rent" at the Panasonic Theatre where we watched a young friend in his first big city show. No fitness gained but the carb loading was spectacular!

Charlotte Vasarhelyi started her Bruce Trail record attempt at 5:44 a.m. Rainy conditions and technical trails are making things slow but steady today. 53 km finished by 3 p.m. today. Another 30 km is scheduled before bedtime.
http://www.ar.attackpoint.org/discussionthread.jsp...

If you're on Twitter, please tweet something to the team using #charbruce to let the new-to-Twitter support crew captain know that people are out there and the system is working! :)

We started the day with a special treat for the pooches. A dog breeder on our block has 18 fenced, forested acres with trails and a swimming pond. They're letting us book times to hike BazingaDog and BulletDog there, and today we were even able to borrow a 15-month-old male Flatcoat Retriever so he and BazingaDog could tire each other out. BulletDog had a great run too but stuck close by due to her longstanding concern that if her first family "abandoned" her, then we might do the same. Great way to kick off a Saturday!

'Bent joined me for a long run around Palgrave and Albion. Although the sky looked threatening at times, it only sprinkled on us a little. This year's crop of poison ivy is particularly lush and healthy. Boo. It was nice to get out after hunkering indoors during yesterday's heavy rain.

We stopped to chat with the owner of Hector the energetic standard poodle and to help the woman with two tired young Girl Guides who had turned around during their hike at Albion Hills. The smaller girl explained, "I don't like hills!" They couldn't remember where their campsite was and we eventually got them pointed in the right direction.

For the past couple of weeks, I've followed my 100-mile ultra training program diligently (for once!) but that's about to change. I'll be pacing Charlotte in her Bruce Trail record attempt over the next 10 days and I'm doing the 5 Peaks Enduro race on Team Attackpoint AR next Saturday. So I'll be playing things by ear and hoping to be rested enough for the Mohican 50-miler two weeks from today.

"Our" prime minister is taking full advantage of his majority government to kill many of the programs that made Canada great. By ensuring that scientific research and monitoring are extremely limited, it will be far more difficult to prove that oil, gas and other industries are having any negative environmental impact. Just to make sure, the government is also weakening environmental regulations to remove "red tape". Naturally I didn't vote for Harper but I'm ashamed anyway.

Here's an example - the mass firing of our ocean scientists.

"Canada is dismantling the nation's entire ocean contaminants program as part of massive layoffs at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Among the scientists terminated are ones who have conducted landmark research about global pollutants for decades: Peter Ross, who is among the world’s leading experts on marine mammals and contaminants, Gary Stern, a mercury expert whose work focuses on the Arctic, Michel Lebeuf, who studies the highly contaminated St. Lawrence belugas and Michael Ikonomou, who researches flame retardants and other endocrine-disrupting contaminants in salmon and other ocean life. Ross told EHN that his main concern is the "wholesale axing of pollution research" that will leave Canada, and much of the world, without the scientific knowledge to protect whales, seals, fish and other marine life -- as well as the indigenous peoples who rely on them for their traditional foods. Many scientists say the purpose of the move by the Canadian government is not just cost-cutting but to eliminate environmental rules and protect the oil and gas industry."

http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/20...

Too busy building an ark to do any training today. Perfect Hurricane Irene-style rogaining weather.

I'd expected today to be a write-off since I was going to be held hostage in Toronto during a major car service but it turned out to be a good day of training! I packed my running clothes at the last minute but wasn't sure where to go. As a country bumpkin, my mental map of Toronto is plastered with places like Mugger Meadows, Jack The Ripper Alley and Rapist Ravine. With 20/20 hindsight, I should have called Bender and requested a personal tour of his local trails.

I ended up at the Waterfront where there would be people around - and nice scenery too!



I parked at Ashbridge's Bay and ran east to the end of the boardwalk, then west to Cherry Beach and back. It was a mix of pavement, boardwalk, loose beach sand, dirt trail and grass. I paused the Garmin a few times for photos, map checks (I'm learning!) and conversations with friendly dog owners. Nice! I focused on posture which remains troublesome for me.

Subaru's service department phoned while I was running. If you were a fly on the wall in their office, this is what you would have heard (approximately!):

"Hello, Ms. Campbell. We're calling about your 2006 Subaru - our car model with all wheel drive and extra clearance to make it look tough and outdoorsy - the one we advertise by showing it bouncing around Moab rocks or over a rugged mountain pass. So um... did you ever take that baby off the pavement? Oh, you *did*, tsk tsk. You live on a gravel road? Oh dear, I see. Well, we *wondered* about that when you brought it in with (gasp!) dirt on it. Anyhoo... your suspension is cracked and broken in several places and the car is really quite dangerous to drive - but it will be over $600 so I don't know... would you like us to fix it? You would? A wise decision." Argghh. And there are other troubles too. Aren't there any good fuel injection engineers out there? ;)

The rest of my Toronto time was not bad. Predictably, I went to MEC (passing Elvira Kurt on the sidewalk enroute) and the Salomon Store. The coolest thing I bought at MEC was a Lonely Planet trekking guide to the Patagonian Andes. The coolest thing I resisted at the Salomon Store was the new lighter (slightly) XA Sky 30 + 10 pack with a huge new back pocket. Looks useful!

Only a few busy minutes at home with no dinner, then it was time for 'Bent and me to dash over to Green Lake to meet The Shed Man for a paddle. Such a relaxing contrast to the big city! I've deducted time for our stop to get yelled at by a lady who didn't believe that The Shed Man had permission from another cottager to be on the lake. She stomped away to phone that cottager and never returned, so we assume all was well... :) Really nice evening and fun to catch up with The Shed Man.

Radek, an old friend who lives Down Undah, is visiting Canada so I took him out for a run/chat around Palgrave East with BulletDog. We accompanied 'Bent and BazingaDog on the first part of their commute to work, then veered off toward the Humber River for a canine swim. Once again, we had no luck finding the local bears.

Radek was one of a dozen of us 20-somethings who went to Sydney a number of years ago to staff a new Australian office of a Canadian software company. What an incredible adventure that was! Only half of us came home; the other half (including Radek) stayed there permanently, most of them marrying Aussies who had no desire to live in chilly Canada. (The exact opposite of Pat-hectic!) So great to catch up and see pics of his outdoor trips in beautiful Oz.

BulletDog and I went into Palgrave East in search of the visiting bear and her cub. No success. It was encouraging how fresh I felt in my first run since Saturday's 50K. I attribute it to a full set of new running clothes including electric purple Salomon Speedcross shoes. :) I'm just breaking them in but wish I'd had the nerve to wear them on Saturday to complete my overall purpleness. I'm liking them a lot; they may be going to the Mohican 50-miler.

Bear and cub spotted in Palgrave less than 1 km from 'Bent's dental office. This should make my training runs a little faster! :)
http://www.caledonenterprise.com/news/bear-cub-spo...

For some reason, this week has me thinking about heat acclimation so here are a couple of good articles on the subject. In going back to read about it again, a few things stood out:

- Just like altitude, you don't want to do *all* your training in heat because it's harder to do a quality workout. You should plan easy workouts as your heat acclimation workouts.

- The benefits decline within 1-3 weeks if you stop exercising in heat so you have to balance your heat acclimation with your taper. (In southern Ontario, we will be exercising in heat for the next few months so I figure we may as well start now.)

- Interestingly (and unfortunately for Ontario Death Racers), it is less valuable to train in humid conditions for a dry race than the other way around. You can't lose heat by sweating as easily in a humid climate so perhaps your body doesn't improve its ability to do so?

- Heat acclimation improves performance in both cool and hot temperatures.

http://www.irunfar.com/2010/04/heat-acclimation-fo...

http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/11/news/heat-a...

Woke up with a sore throat from a cold that started brewing on Friday. Fighting it with all available weapons. So far, so good but I skipped today's "active recovery" session.

I wore pink today in honour of you-know-who! :)