Training Log Archive: Bash

In the "What Goes Around Comes Around" department... Friends of mine had two little girls whom I used to take to see Disney movies. One of them, Erin, is now a young triathlete who lives in Calgary, and she is keen to come to the Death Race to support me - yahoo! Frankly, it is a lot easier and more fun to take a child to "The Lion King" than to support someone in a 24-hour ultra, so I am definitely getting the better part of the deal.

Does anyone have a checklist or set of instructions that you've given to your support crew at an ultra? I can put one together myself but it's always quicker to start with a template. This type of racing is new to Erin so I'd like to make it easier for her.

An interesting study... Maybe it isn't so bad to exercise in polluted air. For most of us, the protective effects of regular exercise may outweigh the damage done to our bodies by the smog, i.e. their hypothesis is that people who *don't* exercise on smog days fare even worse. It still makes sense to minimize your exposure by starting early when pollutant levels tend to be lower, avoiding busy streets, wearing a mask if practical, and eating anti-oxidant rich fruits and vegetables (although the last point remains unproven).

http://www.outsideonline.com/fitness/wellness/Exha...

Leg strength workout on the bike with 'Bent. It was a hot day at 30+C but after training at 35C a few times recently, it didn't feel as awful as it normally would. We warmed up by riding gravel roads over to the base of the hill I've been using for downhill running. The lower slopes of the Col de Coolihan are gentle, then the road twists and tilts up sharply. The steepest part of the 1.1 km climb is also the roughest - loose gravel, washboard surface and potholes. The rest of the slope toward the Plateau de Glen Haffy is more moderate. I did 5 hill repeats and 'Bent did 6.
6:16
6:11
6:11
6:15
6:02

Then we headed home to watch Le Tour. We had a few King of the Mountain sprints during our cooldown but 'Bent Voeckler-ed me on every one!

Around Palgrave East and West. Today I was testing three things:

1) 2L bladder in my 12L Salomon S-Lab Skin Pack
- It fits but the water (not the pack) is bouncier than the 1.5L bladder that comes with the pack. It will work but next time I'll try another 2L bladder that has two chambers to reduce water movement.

2) Carrying trekking poles on the Skin Pack using the tiny pole attachments.
- Worked really well. Rock solid.

3) Mira-cool evaporative cooling headband
- As suspected, this thing doesn't work. Perhaps another brand would be better. Jason "Hammer" Lane used arm "warmers" made from a product called Ice Cold Towels and said they worked really well. This headband felt great at first - like a cold washcloth on the forehead. But within half an hour (not the advertised 6 hours), it was tepid and yucky. I took it off since I figured that my own sweat would feel cooler.

Meanwhile, 'Bent went for a long run with Ursula, female winner of the 2012 Death Race. I'm hoping that some of her awesomeness will rub off on both of us!

Rodney Yee Power Yoga for Flexibility DVD. Wow, if you take a few months off from yoga, it isn't easy to get proper form back right away. I feel better having done it though. Maybe this will be a good way to stay limber over the next couple of weeks when I'm planning easier activities.

I've been avoiding the Canadian Death Race Facebook group for most of the year because it is extremely active, and the nuggets of useful info are few and far between. I figured it was time to jump back in. There is *much* talk about bear spray, bear bangers and bear bells (the least useful of the bunch but apparently they're mandatory gear). What a day... Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Real Facebook interaction from the "My Joke Didn't Work" department:

A friend of mine posted a status describing a great buffet he'd just visited in the U.S. that included strip lion steaks (sic) and a long list of other yummy things.

I couldn't resist poking fun so I commented that we can't even get "lion steak" in Ontario.

A friend of his whom I don't know wrote me a very nice private message listing several places where he buys "strip lion" steaks in Ontario, although he prefers "tenderlion" himself.

I wrote back, explaining the joke politely so he wouldn't feel silly. I pointed out that he was talking about beef, whereas "strip lion" would be another animal. :)

He just responded, explaining that he hadn't been thinking along those lines but he has been trying to remove pork from his diet.

I don't think I'll write back.

Yes, that's right - the colour of my new shoes is "Papaya". Really, Phatty?? Papaya? In every day life, I'm just going to call them "pink". They're very pretty and comfortable, whatever colour they are.

The Canadian Death Race is 16 days away so this is time to taper and focus on race-specific things. My fitness is what it is - too late to work on that.

I ran on the Bruce Side Trail to Glen Haffy and out to Coolihan's Sideroad where I did three 1 km reps downhill on gravel road to simulate a quad-pounding mountain run. Carbon mentioned awhile ago that it's supposed to be beneficial to give your quads a tough workout two weeks before a race. I've been doing it for months but this will be the last time before CDR.

I tried out my new shoes - the same as my current shoes in a different colour. (Inquiring minds will undoubtedly want to know that the other ones are "Very Purple". Heck, even *I* could have thought of that!)

I also used my new waterproof earphones. STORM pointed out that earphones are a bad idea in grizzly/cougar country so I'm just going to turn the volume up and stick the headphones in a pocket on my pack. Not for the entire race but definitely during the night when I want to make noise to frighten wildlife. Don't ask me why it feels more important to do this when it's dark. It's the same as the monsters under your bed when you're a kid. Obviously, they are only there at night. Also, the music may help to keep me awake.

Cardio and strength felt fine today but there were some new minor aches and pains that could have become a bigger deal over a long distance - arggh. They're probably from the combo of a 50 km road bike race on Sunday + 20 km of bushwhacking on Monday. It is probably time to cut back a little since it appears that I'm not invincible (!!!) Also, I need to sleep a LOT more.

I've posted the report and photos from Monday's Wilderness Traverse course test.

Jon Montgomery (2010 Olympic gold in Skeleton) sends a message to Canada's London-bound athletes.

Wilderness Traverse course testing with Mike Waddington. Bob and I thought it would be interesting to get feedback on part of a trek from a 3-time North American orienteering champion!



It was one of those stupid hot days but we spent a lot of it in the shade or in the water, so it wasn't too bad.





Mike knew the acronym "FDF" but until today, I don't think he truly appreciated the *meaning* of the term. He sure does now! This is why we hold the race in mid-August.







As a wetland ecohydrologist, Mike especially enjoyed the thickly vegetated beaver dams and mucky shoe-sucking sections. We didn't get into much mud due to the dry summer, and we were able to walk across wetlands that Bob and I had to skirt last October. From an environmental perspective, that's a little worrisome.





The Muskoka landscape has beautiful open rock ridges where it's possible to move quickly while enjoying scenic views. The ridges tend to end abruptly - sometimes in small cliffs - so racers need to pay attention in this technical terrain.











Everyone knows how much Mike loves heights so I took a break while he scaled this rock face. ;)



I haven't seen a bear in 3 years of Wilderness Traverse course testing but today we saw several big piles of scat, suggesting that the local bears are eating well. That's what we like to see!



We were scrambling up a steep hillside when I picked up a familiar sound. "Hey, that's a rattlesnake!" If you haven't heard it before, it sounds like an insect but I've drilled it into my memory after Bob and I saw one a few weeks ago. If you're going to Muskoka, you should become familiar with it too.

I took a step backward and heard it again. I couldn't see anything so I took a few tentative steps back and forth to figure out approximately where the sound was coming from. After that, it took about 30 seconds to see the well-camouflaged snake hiding in the leaf litter.



It took another 30 seconds of my pointing at it until Mike could pick it out. Massasauga rattlers hide really well. They are timid and don't want to strike unless absolutely necessary. Even when they do, they don't always release venom since that uses up precious resources. We didn't stay long, and the snake and I parted on good terms.



You could pack raft parts of this route but today we chose to travel overland and take advantage of opportunities to swim. It felt soooo good!



I got in the water carefully.



Mike, not so much.





In summer, it sometimes takes imagination to see a trail.



I had to take this photo for VJ, Mike and Bart. You may have heard of their team. :)



Course testing isn't *all* fun and games. But some of it is.



Thanks to Mike for giving us a day of his time to check out an interesting and varied section of the race course. It's so much fun to play on the Canadian Shield!