Training Log Archive: Bash

Event: Salomon Raid the Hammer
 

Salomon Raid The Hammer in Oakville with Team Achilles Healing - Funderstorm and DLevine. All of us are injured. Guess where. None of us had done the Half Raid before, and our shared goal was to finish the day without aggravating our injuries too much. We won't know until tomorrow but we didn't feel too bad by the end.

I've been trying to respect doctor's orders not to run but the race started with individual 400 m loops around the school track so I figured it wouldn't kill me to jog a little bit on such a nice surface. Naturally, things degenerated from there, and we ended up running most of the flats and gentle hills, always at a manageable pace with rest breaks to keep our feet happy. This was my first attempt at running in 15 days, and it felt so nice. (Sniffle.) I sure hope that at tomorrow's appointment, it won't be too obvious that I've cheated on my doc...

The forest was beautiful and fairly open. There were some super-steep, muddy climbs where we had to grab saplings to haul ourselves up, and one descent where we used Mr. Gally's butt luge technique. DLevine was stellar in our primary navigator role while Funderstorm and I paid attention to our maps mostly because it was polite to do so, not because we needed to discuss route choices very often on the course.

It was very relaxing to have no competitive aspirations; I was just grateful to have found a couple of fun teammates who shared the same goals and concerns this time around.

The only bummer was that Funderstorm refused to perform a Taylor Swift song because there were other teams around who might hear. I'm not sure it counts as a Funderstorm racing experience with no TS tunes. However, she did provide some excellent post-race refreshments that more than made up for it.

Great to see so many friends and collect some hugs to help the healing. Congrats to all the Attackpointers who had excellent races today! Special congrats to JayXC for taking the overall win. Nice that Mr. and Mrs. Gally took 'Bent onboard when I bailed from the full Raid. Results were close at the top but they were only 20 minutes back from the overall winners.

Big thanks to Pat-hectic, Dana and Runit for their work on the race course. Hope to see a lot of Raid racers at the O Cup Kick-Off on Sunday Nov. 24 at Glen Haffy! I will plan a post-race lunch location.

(Updated GPS time to synch with SI time.)

Dog hiking, wood hauling, not really training. My heel is hurting from the physio stretches. Blah.

The lottery opened today for the 2014 Western States Endurance Run. Being injured makes it easier to stick to my plan not to put my name in but there's always a wee bit of regret about "sensible" decisions. http://www.wser.org/lottery/

Busy till dark so back on the trainer again. Today it was RIDES 2: Las Vegas, Valley of Fire. More fun than Coach Troy although it's still a trainer ride so hard to get excited about.

My right knee was stiff all day. It's been behaving well for several years but it's been my bad knee in the past. Just what I need right now... another malfunctioning body part. If my shoulder finally gives out, it will probably be time to shoot me.

It's possible that the first trainer session of the winter gave my knee grief but I suspect the pigeon pose in last night's yoga class may be the culprit. I always try to be cautious on the right side but I know it's risky. Anyway, today's trainer ride neither fixed it nor made it worse.

During the DVD part of the workout:
Ave 24.7 kph
Cadence: 86 (ave), 132 (max)
Power: 151 (ave), 226 (max)

Trails were too wet to ride so I couldn't postpone setting up my trainer any longer. The sad truth is that poor Princess didn't get outside at all this year; I'm just not much of a road rider. I kicked off trainer season with some classic Coach Troy: Spinervals 1.0 No Slackers Allowed. Lots of sweat but my cold wasn't bothering me too much so hopefully I'm on the upswing!

During the DVD workout:
Ave speed: 25.2 kph
Cadence: 85 (ave), 145 (max)
Watts: 150 (ave), 278 (max)

Hard Core Live with Caron

Tonight's class was even more strength-oriented than usual. I may be imagining it but I thought that the two sides of my body might be in better balance after all the adjustments on Monday, and my lower back wasn't as tight as usual.

It's not uncommon for a dog or two to attend our yoga class, and tonight's dog was doing really well until we all did tiger pose, then she started howling softly - probably totally confused at this pack of crazy humans!

The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour trailer has been released! This always gives me itchy feet. (I watched it a bunch of times over the weekend so my feet really itch right now.) Our Tree Hugger teammate Logan Tacoma appears at 6:40.

Just heard that the annual Salomon Friends and Family VIP Day at the Salomon Toronto store will be this coming Tuesday, Nov. 12 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. It's a private sale that offers 40% off Salomon clothing and shoes, and there are usually good discounts on Suunto products too. I'm putting together an e-mail to friends who live in the area and might be interested but I'm guaranteed to forget a few people since this stupid cold is messing with my brain. If you are interested and able to go, please e-mail me to ensure you get an invitation with instructions on how to get your name added to the store's VIP list.

Fairly hard paddle while listening to an old "Q" podcast. Debate du jour: Is "benevolent sexism" (e.g. "chivalry") OK, or does it tend to lead to "hostile sexism"? Still fighting the cold but didn't feel nearly as awful as yesterday.

Some products aren't easy to advertise but the writer of this ad gets extra points for creativity. The British accent helps too. It's been around for a couple of months so you may have seen it already.



Also, this might be useful: "How to tell if your Mayor is smoking crack".

My AP log received its 200,000th visit over the weekend. Mind boggling! Thanks so much for stopping by and for joining in the conversation here occasionally. Whether or not we've met in in real life, we share a bond and I'm glad you're here. Attackpoint is full of fun, interesting, generous people; what an amazing community Ken has established!

Yoga + some extra core and foothab. With my cold, it feels rotten to be anything other than vertical, and it doesn't feel good if my heart rate goes up even a little. Blah.

After a nice visit with Goose when he dropped off our canoe, BulletDog and I went for a gentle hike to see the 12 trees that have fallen across the 200 m stretch of trail that leads into the Palgrave West conservation land. I did some clean-up of branches but what we really need is someone with a chainsaw hobby. Too bad this windstorm happened the day *after* Hallowe'en.

Interesting, detailed assessment and treatment with Dr. Bell yesterday. A few highlights:

- I run mostly with my left leg - the bad one. Guess why it got bad. My right glute is much less functional than my left (something I'd noticed), and some of this is due to lack of mobility around the hips and lower back. This was one of several things he was able to start improving right away with a few adjustments and tests.

- I run on the lateral (outside) edge of my left foot rather than pushing off hard with my big toe. This is related to my recurrent ankle sprains - a chicken and egg thing but at this point, I'm always close to turning that ankle because my weight is shifted in that direction. I'd brought a pair of shoes that I'd only run 200 km in, but he showed me how my left shoe looks different from my right shoe as a result of my gait.

- I was only there to ask about my foot but when he followed the chain of tightness and imbalances up through my body, they led to my bad right shoulder, which I had not considered might be connected. He found several places with lack of mobility or imbalances, with my bad foot being a small piece of the puzzle.

- The pain that had brought me in was a minor part of the discussion. Dr. Bell doesn't see me as having serious Achilles trouble and says that nearly everyone has a Haglund's deformity so don't worry about it. The retrocalcaneal bursa may be what is causing the pain. In any case, he's keen to get me back doing squats and other strength exercises that stretch the heel - things I've been avoiding. He says my problems aren't too severe and that 'Bent was in a worse state at his first appointment.

- His focus is on making me a better and more competitive runner - something I was not asking for nor even thinking about. When the pain got really bad in late September, I began to think that my running days might be over but I'd be happy just to have the ability to hike when I get old. I was hoping I hadn't screwed myself up too badly already. But Dr. Bell's goal is to improve my running style and efficiency with the side effect of getting rid of the pain. He brushed off my comments about being a slow runner with good endurance. "If we can address these problems, you will get faster." I'll just be happy if I can run long distances pain-free. Who knows what will really happen but I feel like he's part coach, part healthcare professional.

Bottom line... I'm supposed to take another week off running, then check in with him again to see how the various adjustments have been working. I'm allowed to do everything else, including hiking. (Raid The Hammer is like a fast hike, right?) The kinesiologist gave me some intro exercises, then I'll have 6 weekly sessions with her.

Cautious optimism. :)

Happy 80th Birthday, Dad! :) Fun party. This will improve your chances of getting an age group win at next year's Rotary Brantford Classic 5K.

Long awaited running/injury assessment with Dr. Larry Bell in Orillia today. A little worried about what I might hear but whatever will be, will be.

Sore throat and low energy today. I guess it was bound to happen after riding airplanes and sitting near crowds of people in theatres for 4 days.