Training Log Archive: Bash

'Bent and I went for a trail run in west Caledon for a change of scenery. Our route included the Grange hill, a rocky scramble down Devil's Pulpit and a tour through Forks of the Credit Provincial Park near Belfountain.

Coach Spaff had given 'Bent his marching orders, which were... not to march - only run. There were a few places where it was too steep or rocky but he tried very hard to comply. This encouraged me to run more too; 'Bent came back for me if he got too far ahead.

The heat got to me in the last 45 minutes, and I staggered up the hills after that - much slower than our hiking pace on Friday night, even after 10 hours. There may be a lesson there... Fun otherwise!

It's fun to see a whale from a kayak but I wouldn't want it to lift my boat out of the water! These paddlers were a little too relaxed about a potentially dangerous situation but I guess there was nothing else they could do once they'd ventured too close to the whales in the first place.

Funderstorm, 'Bent and I drove up to the north side of Mono Cliffs Provincial Park for a Friday night trail adventure. The plan was to do a brisk 50 km hike with full running packs and test our lights for a few hours at the end.



'Bent and I were carrying the stuff we plan to carry for UTMB. It has a significant mandatory gear list by ultrarunning standards; the race takes runners high in the Alps where bad weather and hypothermia are serious risks so the list makes sense. (Except for the mandatory 6 cm elastic adhesive bandage - bulky, unavailable in Canada and completely useless since I already carry nice, trustworthy 5 cm Leukotape, stretchy and non-stretchy.)

I haven't spent much time at Mono Cliffs so we did a little extra exploring there.





We continued south until we hit the north side of the Hockley Loop, then headed east to the Three Beeyatches.





As we came down the huge 5th Line hill, we saw a woman running up toward us. Impressive! Not surprisingly, it was Slowrunner. She was heading out for a 6-hour night run in preparation for the Fat Dog 120.



Where the Bruce side trail meets the Bruce main trail at Sally's Pinnacle, we left the Hockley Loop route to go east on the main trail.



This is where the trail passes through a closed ski area; it has all been rerouted in the past couple of months.

We'd hidden a cooler in the woods near the Tai Chi Centre to be an aid station about 4 hours in. That's where Slowrunner had parked and she had offered to bring the cooler home for us. I'm pretty sure she also meant that we should use her car as an aid station table, even though she didn't say so specifically.



Somewhere in this area, I half-turned the ankle on my bad foot, something I haven't done in 13 months. There was no pain (then) and I don't expect major repercussions but I was disappointed that all my proprioception work didn't prevent it.

We met talented ultrarunner Melanie Boultbee shortly after that; she and a friend were heading north for a 30 km night run.

We had some great hilltop views in the evening light.



And then it got dark. We put on our headlamps just after we crossed Hwy 9. (That is always a scary spot.)



We went through Glen Haffy conservation area, taking the Palgrave Side Trail through the Dingle and eventually to our house, aka Aid Station #2. Boy, were the pooches glad to see us! (Their bladder capacity helped to shape our route plan.)

We headed back out into Palgrave West and East, keeping an eye on the GPS since we just wanted to get to 50 km and go to bed. This was tougher mentally than the point-to-point part of our trek. Neither Funderstorm nor I used caffeine since we wanted to be able to sleep afterward so we were stumbling around a bit. 'Bent was full of energy and bursting with conversation.





Most of the time, I live in the Ambit world, where the error correction algorithm under-measures distance on forested single track but tonight I decided that 'Bent's Garmin should rule. I used the Ambit elevation gain though since I trust it more.

We got home after 3 a.m. where 'Bent (unfairly) was able to sleep in spite of the caffeine. Funderstorm and I were too sore to sleep very well. Here's our finish line shot just before the huge dog greeting.



Notes:

- Damn, that pack was heavy. There were indents on my shoulders. I need to figure out what I can live without. (And I mean that literally.)
- I wrapped around my little toes with Leukotape and ended up with a huge blister on the tip of my left little toe. This started less than 20 km in and was super painful. There didn't seem to be anything I could do about it but I need to figure out how to prevent it.
- My BashBlaster headlamp strap still hurts my forehead. We need to fix that before the World Rogaining Champs.
- The little extra Salomon pocket on the front straps worked out well for maps and phone but I still need to test it while running.
- It's really hard to get the bladder back into a full pack. I should test the bladder filling device that works via the mouthpiece. 'Bent has one.
- We agreed that hiking 50 km seemed harder than running it. It's a lot of time on feet!
- Still fun anyway, especially going out for breakfast the next day. :)

More riding around Albion Hills to GPS more trails for the updated mountain bike orienteering map. Before I started this project, I thought it would be possible to ride all the trails in Albion Hills in about 3 hours. Not true! Still more to ride after my 3rd session, and I haven't bothered with the park and campground roads since they haven't changed. It would go faster if I weren't trying to ride EFI since some backtracking is required. Not too long till I can focus on course setting instead of map making. The wheels are already turning... (hehe!)

What Commonwealth Games sport are you best suited for? The BBC can tell you. Apparently, I should have been a long distance road cyclist.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-28062001

Speaking of which, here is breaking news from the Tour de France. ;)
(Not a spoiler.)
http://www.theonion.com/video/breaking-tour-de-fra...

Romance for Athletes
http://krcblog.tumblr.com

Ran in Palgrave West and *boy* were my glutes hurting from yesterday's strength training. Four years ago, Crash and I used to meet some mornings for Bash 'n' Crash 500s, which were 500 m speed intervals on the Bruce Trail. I know I'm slower now and thought this would be interesting for a time trial. My first interval was 2:11 - woot! When we started the intervals in 2010, my first couple were 2:17 and I worked my way up to 2:05 over a few weeks - although only once. I could usually break 2:10 though.

Each interval today felt faster than the one before. Yay! But in fact, each interval was *slower* than the previous one. Boo! Well, the last two were the same. I'd planned 5 intervals but decided to quit before I tripped on a root or in a soft horse footprint. I was pretty tired. Who knew it was so hard to do speedwork only once a year?

2:11
2:14
2:16
2:16

I ran another half hour around Palgrave West. Warm-up and cooldown each included a long raspberry picking break.

Pushed hard today. With less than 6 weeks to the race, I'm probably at the stage where I should just try to maintain the strength I have but it's hard to resist the gut feeling that getting stronger must be good. My gimpy foot is a lot less gimpy than it was but it sure would hurt less if I had Coach LD's leg muscles. Not that I could ever come close but it's nice to reach for the stars! :)

I recognize and/or use all of these terms but are they uniquely Canadian?