Training Log Archive: Bash

Turkey Trot Long
Albion Hills
(Loving the FellCross for orienteering, btw!)

Perfect sunny day, not too hot! I ran in a younger age group so I could do a longer course - the same one 'Bent was doing. I felt good - not fast but moving consistently on and off-trail. I'm quite familiar with Albion Hills, which helped but wasn't always an advantage. When racing in a familiar area, there's a tendency to read the map less carefully and think, "Oh, I know that hill" - when actually, you don't. But I didn't mess anything up significantly - other than #7 where a new trail led a lot of us astray. I collected a bunch of burrs that managed to chafe my right quad in a number of places - ouch!

'Bent started 1 minute behind me, and I saw him a couple of times on the course. I last spotted him near #8 as we headed out on the long leg to #9. From that point on, much of the course was well-suited to faster runners - but surprisingly, he wasn't at the finish line. He arrived shortly afterward with a tale of woe related to #9, and we headed over to MJ to get the verdict from the SI download. YES! Marital bragging rights are mine - with a slim 57-second lead. I was 2nd of 18 people in the various age/gender groups on our course. 'Bent was 3rd and Tom Wolever was the fastest, 5 minutes ahead of me. I can feel that my nav skills are rusty but I'm pretty happy with how things went this weekend. Maybe I wouldn't make a fool of myself if I went to NAOCs after all.

Turkey Trot, TOC
Claireville Conservation Area

It's been sooo long since I've orienteered! It was great to see friendly faces, hear stories about summer vacations, and get back on a map. The late summer vegetation was lush so the going was tough today. Many areas mapped as open were filled with thick, tangled weeds including lots of goldenrod which was above my waist in many places. Luckily, I'd worn my ankle brace for the first time since early spring. I needed it!

In spite of the extra effort to get around the terrain today, it was fun. I had a 2-minute error on one control but most of the others were OK, albeit not perfect. I was 3rd of 20 people running the same course in various age/gender categories. Good thing I didn't let it go to my head because the sprint was humbling...

About 40 seconds into my first attempt at this race, I found a young orienteer weeping because he couldn't find the trail so I stopped and suggested that we run back to the start together, since his parents were there. But they'd headed out to watch him along the course so we got new start times one minute apart so I could keep an eye on his first leg, and his second attempt was more successful (with moral support from Dad, who appeared at just the right time). When I was that young, I wasn't that brave - good on him!

I had a few good controls. Heck, I beat Galyna on two splits. But mostly, it was a disaster. My brain never got into the 1:5000 version of the map, and the sprint included some of the worst vegetation bashing of the day. I lost 10 minutes on two controls alone, which is hard to do in a sprint! This was unsurprising after 4 months away from navigation races. Although it felt like the worst sprint in history, I'm surprised to see that I was 8th of 18 people on the course so I guess I wasn't alone. One very experienced orienteer had a 23 minute split on a leg that took most of us around 4 minutes. It was just that kind of day.

Rain has been falling steadily in Palgrave for the past few hours. Bring it on! 80% of the U.S. is experiencing some form of drought, which is going to affect our food prices over the next while. Looks like the climate scientists may have had a point about droughts and extreme weather events... ;(

29C and hopefully (!) one of the last hot, humid days of summer. I planned a paddle-run brick at Island Lake. I hauled the surfski out of the garage, heaved it on the roof of the car, tied it on, and found my PFD and boat kit. Then I packed running shoes and socks, waist pack, water bottle, Garmin and dry clothes for afterward. Phew, all my adventure race packing has made it a breeze to get ready for a complicated little training session like this.

I'd driven about 1.5 kms when I realized that I hadn't brought a paddle. :(

There was a gusty southwest wind that kept me on my toes and even whipped up a little chop at times. I love paddling into a headwind - it makes me feel like I'm somewhere a lot more adventurous than Island Lake! It was great to be out.

A short run on the Vicki Barron Trail. I can't believe that in all the times I've been at Island Lake, I've never tried this. The trail is relatively new, built a few years ago, and when I've looked at it from the water, I usually see families with strollers or people out for an easy Sunday bike ride without helmets. I guess it looked too civilized. Turns out it's wide like a rail trail but with some hills. The short section I did was quite pretty. I think I'll tack on a run after future paddling sessions. There aren't a lot of trails at Island Lake but there is more exploring to be done.

TSN2 has been showing a TV program about the Centurion Horseshoe road bike races. A kind friend took this photo to prove that I was leading 'Bent up the biggest hill on the course!



Unfortunately, this was 2 minutes into the race, and 'Bent left me in his recumbent dust shortly afterward. :)

Five tips for a woman....

1. It is important that a man helps around the house and has a job.
2. It is important that a man makes you laugh.
3. It is important to find a man you can count on and doesn't lie to you.
4. It is important that a man loves you and spoils you.
5. It is important that these four men don't know one other.

:) Just kidding, 'Bent!

If 'Bent posts a "Big Dog Free to a Good Home" ad, please don't answer. Apparently, today's bike commute home with BazingaDog was a disaster. 'Bent is in the garage now fixing his broken chain...

For those who like photos... Thanks to DoubleDown_on11 and his great photography skills, I've added a bunch of new LRS pics to my race report, with explanation as required.

http://www.ar.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_920...

Mrs. Gally is getting ready for the Oil Creek 100-miler next month so today she went out for not one but *two* Hockley loops. She wisely booked Dee for Loop #1, which they completed in a speedy 2:31. I met them at noon, then we said farewell to Dee, and Mrs. Gally and I headed out for Loop #2 in the counter-clockwise direction. I rarely go this direction but I think it is a little easier. That is, it's easier if you don't make a wrong turn while involved in a conversation and go halfway down Hockley Ski Hill by mistake - oops! That's OK - we needed the extra climbing to get ready for Oil Creek. (Tiny and I will be there too, doing the 100K.)

It was fun to catch up. I'm always amazed at Mrs. Gally's energy - teaching a spin class at 6 a.m., running two Hockley Loops, running and biking in the evening with her personal training clients, all while being a wife and Mom to three kids. Phew! No wonder she looks fresh as a daisy after an overnight adventure race - it's probably the easiest day she's had in months!

Although she has many attributes, a hydration pack is not one of them, and she ran out of water with an hour to go. It was a hot day, and I had enough water to share for an hour if we rationed it. We were going to have to push hard to meet her babysitter's time constraints so we decided not to run through Hockley Provincial Park at the end of our loop. Instead we continued south on 3rd Line to the bottom of the valley and ran Hockley Rd. to the parking lot. It was only 2 km shorter but there was less elevation gain. It still made for an impressive day of training for her - more than a marathon distance through some of the hilliest terrain around. My legs are still fatigued from LRS but I felt better than expected so this was great training for me too.

We were discussing pacing plans for Oil Creek. Coach Dee thinks Mrs. Gally should run with me for the first 50K loop, then run her own faster pace after that. It would probably drive her stir crazy but there would certainly be no risk of her going out too fast. Interesting... Maybe I could build a lucrative new career as a Slow Pace Bunny! ;)

Monday mornings can be tough!

I've added some pics and explanation to my LRS report. Thanks to Harps, Eco and 'Bent for sharing their pics. I'll add more after Double_Downon11 posts his collection.