Training Log Archive: Bash

Neutral roll-out up Horseshoe Valley Rd. hill.

Centurion 50K cycling race at Horseshoe Valley. I'm not a road racer - just a chicken when it comes to road riding, and this event provided a rare opportunity to ride with virtually no traffic and police controlling every intersection.

Centurion does a great job of organizing events. There were about 1,000 racers today in the 50K and 100K races. We saw Bill Logie, Martin Rydlo, Keith Sanger, John Yip and Brent Doberstein (old friend of 'Bent's family). It's one of the few places I've been where I felt perfectly comfortable leaving a $3,000 bike lying around because nobody there would have touched it with a 10 foot pole. In this carbon/titanium/aero crowd, Princess was definitely a commoner.

My race went pretty well, considering that I've only done two short road rides since last fall. We started with a neutral roll-out up the hill on Horseshoe Valley Rd. and started racing on 4th Line. The route was nice and hilly and I'm feeling my glutes now, so I hope this will be a decent substitute for the long run I should have done this weekend. I did some pulling, some drafting and a lot of riding into the wind on my own. I learned that one of my biggest weaknesses is a fear of tiny road tires skidding out on corners. I got passed on most turns because I was more cautious than others in my part of the pack. I kept thinking about the Tour de France commentators who say that former mountain bikers are "great descenders" and "excellent bike handlers". Hmm, instead of bringing mountain bike skills into my road riding, I've brought a fear of falling on hard surfaces!

Post-race meal was a pancake breakast - yum.

'Bent did really well, even though he had been asked to start near the back of the starting corrals on his modified recumbent mountain bike. He was 5th/23 in his age group.

The rockstar in our group of friends was Coach Huet, who was 5th of 83 women in our race! They recognized the top 5. (That's Coach H. on the left.)



She also won our age group, needless to say.



I squeaked onto the podium too, 3rd of 17 in our age group. (They brought up all the 3rd place riders at once.)



Great workout - nice to have the chance to push hard on a bike for so long without stopping. I may do the Centurion in Collingwood in September too.

A few weeks ago, 'Bent and I attended a fundraising dinner. When they announced the winners of the silent auction, 'Bent was surprised to learn he had won the entry to Centurion Horseshoe - especially since he hadn't bid on it, haha. :) He was a road bike racer in his teens but hasn't raced since then and can't ride a regular bike anymore due to a bad case of "dentist's neck".

So... he converted one of his recumbent bikes to a more road-friendly configuration, and today we went out for a hilly test ride northwest of Caledon East. We're not sure if he will be allowed to race ranked tomorrow but he sure flies on the downhills and flats. I gained time on the uphills.

We've been listening to Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen doing live commentary on the Tour de France, so I knew I should practise "stamping my authority on the race", "tapping out a good rhythm" and "digging into my suitcase of courage".

Horseshoe will be a hilly course so we should get a great workout tomorrow. We have to leave at 4:30 a.m. (yikes!) but on the bright side, we'll be done before it gets too hot.

You know it's hot when...

'Bent was in downtown Toronto for an event this afternoon. The soles of his dress shoes melted as he walked around Nathan Phillips Square!! (The soles were rubber; he bought them for our wedding on a rocky canoe campsite.)

Another Extreme Heat Alert = another opportunity for an easy heat acclimation run. I waited until the mercury climbed to 32C then headed out on a combination of rolling country roads and rail trail to maximize the sun exposure. (Humber Station to rail trail to Duffy's Lane to home.) It was manageable thanks to moderate humidity, occasional cloudy periods and a few light puffs of breeze. In theory, this heat acclimation training is helping my body to adapt biologically. I have no idea if that is happening but it is helping to ease my fears and increase my confidence in hot weather. It still sucks though; I much prefer cold weather acclimation!

The relationship between mathematics and Olympic success, including an explanation of why swimming records get broken more often than running records.

Paddle training on Island Lake with 'Bent, Goose and Coach PH. We moved around between the kevlar canoe, my JKK Eclipse downriver racing kayak from NZ and our new Epic V8 surfski.



Goose and I both found the V8 was faster than the Eclipse, however, I didn't test my hypothesis the way he did - by revving it up to 15.7 kph (with a tailwind).



His record in my Eclipse is 13 point something.



Endurance cruising speed in both boats is considerably lower. Easy paddling for me is in the 8-9 kph range. If I start putting in serious effort, I can keep it between 9-10 kph for awhile. Going over 10 kph is possible for me but not sustainable for very long. Goose can sustain 10-11 kph and keep it over 11 kph for a little while with high effort. Nice to see that the rudder didn't get tangled in the weeds since there are quite a few.

The first part of this GPS track is mine, then I gave my Garmin to Goose for the second part. I'm sure the switchover will be obvious!

A few hill sprints with 9-year-old boys and a little mountain biking at Forks of the Credit as I helped Pat-hectic hang and take down flags, and coached kids taking part in the C3 Day Camp orienteering session. A couple of kids asked me if they would get to do this again. The ones who figured out the map were the same ones who asked permission for our group to run up hills. Well, OK!

Many of you know about Emily Kemp's bronze medal in the Long race at the Junior World Orienteering Championships yesterday. It was the best ever finish by a North American at JWOC or WOC.

She has worked diligently toward this, attending university in France so she could train with world champion Thierry Gueorgiou and other French elites.

The Team Canada blog links to her CBC radio interview today and posts a text interview done after yesterday's race.

Here's the Ottawa Citizen article that was on page 1 of today's sports section. It quotes Orienteering Canada's executive director Charlotte MacNaughton (Charm on AP): "“Emily’s medal makes this a historic day for Canadian orienteering.” Nice!

Congratulations, Emily. The middle distance qualification races start in a few hours!

If a 3-week taper for the Death Race is appropriate, this is the last week to do any hard training. Naturally I will cheat a little, e.g. the 50K Centurion road biking race at Horseshoe this Sunday and a day of Wilderness Traverse course testing with Hammer on Monday. But this is the last week to build anything up; then it's all about resting and maintaining fitness until the race.

Today I ran in Hockley Valley Provincial Park - all three Bruce Trail side trails on the way out and the main Bruce Trail on the way back. That was about 14 km of hilly trail, then I went south up the 2nd Line hill (the first part of which is Bruce Trail) out of the Hockley Valley, then ran back down. It's a 2 km hill with a dip in the middle that makes for a little more climbing.

When I got back down to the Nottawasaga River, I decided to do it one more time - 2K up and 2K down. When I do training sessions like this, I don't make the same efforts to protect my body that I do in ultra races since I'm hoping that what hurts me will make me stronger. Ouch, I guess I'm going to be stronger.

Today's podcasts: "This American Life", "Spark", "Ultrarunner", "Q". A couple of interesting ideas from the podcasts:

1) When the Internet first got going, we tended to interact in an asynchronous manner, i.e. we downloaded forum discussions or e-mails and took our time crafting a response. In those days, the Internet made us look smarter. Now that we're responding instantly to messages on tiny keyboards on our phones, the Internet can make us look dumb!

2) If you race smart for the first 20 miles of a 100-mile ultra run, it's very difficult to "race dumb" for the final 80 miles. If you "race dumb" for the first 20 miles, it's almost impossible to race smart for the final 80 miles.

Hmm, apparently the theme of today's run was "smart vs. dumb". Not sure what that means...

Tempo trail run on Bruce Side Trail to Centreville Creek Rd. and back. Legs felt great!

Added more pics from FB's cottage yesterday. Thanks, FB and Will - so much fun!