Training Log Archive: Bash

Event: Star Tracks Mountain Bike Orienteering
 

Star Tracks results are now posted. Thanks, Mick and LJ!
http://stars.whyjustrun.ca/events/view/1603

Thanks to so many of you for supporting the inaugural Star Tracks MTBO event. Registrations soared in the last few days, and I know a few of you helped by promoting the race to your friends. I pushed it hard because I think there is room for some MTBO in southern Ontario, and if we had a poor turnout, it would probably be another 5 years until some club tried it again.

If you have suggestions for improvement, please write me or comment here. I have ideas for things we could do differently but you were out there so you know more than I do. There are always lessons learned in a first time event.

So many people helped out in various ways - putting out controls, vetting controls, taking them down, promoting the event, providing snacks, taking photos, etc., etc. My co-organizers, Mick and LJ (Michael Lucente and Laura Smith) put in a ton of work at a very busy time, just before they welcome their second son. Mick and I have been exchanging e-mails since July as we updated the map to reflect the past few years of trail changes. I got the fun part - riding the trails - while poor Mick had to keep changing the map every time I discovered some new anomaly. Big thanks to Mick, LJ and everyone who helped out. We are lucky to be part of such an incredible community.

Goose went out in the dark to place 7 controls last night (thank you!), which left me 13 controls to place this morning. Veinbuster appeared unexpectedly at the park gate so I had a helper - thanks! I got to do some extra hill training when I realized halfway between #13 and #14 that I had the flag for #14 but its stand was still lying on the ground by #13. Gorgeous morning. I should get up earlier and enjoy more mornings.

Fast last-minute pre-race ride to search for missing control. Found it and problem was resolved with the help of Goose and Mick.

Goose was going out after dark to put out some SI controls for tomorrow's race. Since he hadn't been on the course before and I hadn't checked my tiny ribbons for awhile, I used this as an excuse to go for a trail run in Albion Hills and hang much longer ribbons that would be more easily seen in the dark. Not that Goose couldn't find the correct locations but it was a cold night so it would be nice if he could just confirm the ribbon locations.

Glad I went, as the ribbon had been removed from one of the trickier controls to place in the dark (#9). The same thing had happened to #9 on the Novice Short course so I'm either going to find more missing ribbons tomorrow morning or 9 is just an unlucky number.

I met Mr. and Mrs. Coach Huet hiking in the woods and tried to convince them to come out tomorrow. Mr. CH looked interested - or maybe he was just being polite. Running felt great - loving the colder air! (Sorry, Harps.)

Then I came home to welcome Arthurd as our house guest on her 40th birthday! :)

'Bent texted me at 2:27 of the Vulture Bait 50K to say that he's finished the first 25K. That sounds like a reasonably cautious pace. Fingers crossed that he'll make it through his first-ever ultra without stomach issues. So far so good, he says, but he always feels good at 25K. He is experimenting with some new ideas from a nutritional counsellor.

Pre-race errands around Caledon. I thought I might go out into the woods to put out control stands but I've come up with a better plan that involves the mighty Goose. Unfortunately, that plan allowed me to eat cookies and write e-mails instead of running or riding.

BazingaDog is untrustworthy off-leash so we have very few good outdoor photos of him. Now that he can run around our new fenced yard, I'll have to take my camera out more often. He moves fast! Most of my photos were blurry.

Uh oh, Caron was wearing orange, which always means it's going to be a tough class. Ouch.

Yoga was also tougher than usual - half yang and half yin, lots of strength required. Unfortunately, I wrenched my bad shoulder yesterday when I tripped on a root while running and instinctively flung my arms forward. Thus tonight I had to do modifications for anything similar to a push-up or that involved twisting my shoulder in unaccustomed directions.

I've had no time for a shoulder treatment in the past two weeks and I haven't been doing my physio. Maybe after the MTBO is over...

Photos from my hike with Mocha today, a 1 km loop from our house. It's beautiful up here, hint, hint, so why not try some mountain bike orienteering on Sunday morning? :)
http://stars.whyjustrun.ca/events/view/1603

Mocha can't hike too far these days. Cancer spread into her lungs over the summer so she gets out of breath if she pushes too hard. She has no idea, fortunately, so she keeps galloping and sniffing with doggie enthusiasm. I hope we get to have many more hikes together.













And from earlier this week, BazingaDog and Mocha enjoyed their car ride home from Ottawa. :)

'Bent would like access to my "Find my iPhone" feature for safety when I head into the woods alone. It seems that he has a point.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/15/woman-str...

Just as I was going to declare my cold over, along came a big sneeze! But I think that was just my body's idea of a joke so I went for a short run around Palgrave West. Mocha and I had gone for a hike earlier and the leaves were so gorgeous that I wanted to explore further. Photos to come - from the hike, not from a 28 minute run!

Twelve trekkers have been reported dead near the top of the 17,769-foot Thorung La pass, the high point of the Annapurna circuit, after snowstorms and avalanches related to a tropical cyclone hit Nepal this week. Seventeen trekkers have been reported dead across the country, and a hundred others are missing.
http://www.outsideonline.com/news-from-the-field/A...

Before we were married, 'Bent and I were on Thorung La pass when a tropical cyclone sent a huge blizzard our way. One person in our group froze to death, and the rest of us knew the risk was real as we shuffled along in white-out conditions. When the storm ended, one hundred people had been killed across Nepal. A few days earlier, a mudslide had hit Bagarchap, a village along our trekking route, just before we arrived. Three Canadians were killed there.

This week's tragedy is stirring up sad memories of a beautiful part of the world.

We're new to this and could use some advice from more experienced folks... We pulled a deer tick off 'Bent tonight. It was only partially engorged; he raced Saturday and Sunday, hence it could have been there > 48 hrs. Skin is bright red around the bite, maybe dime sized. Hard to tell if there is scattered rash beyond that since it was itchy and he was scratching through his shirt. He'll call his doc but I'm guessing local docs don't have much experience with Lyme. Any advice from AP Land?

Turns out I've been wasting my time training for races that take 40+ hours. Apparently, the sweet spot for me is a little over 20 minutes. Who knew?

The NAOC Sprint was a great time with loads of variety in a short race. We started by Madawaska Falls after running a beautiful riverside trail to the start. I went out for 5 minutes on the little warm-up map since I haven't run on a map drawn to sprint standards for a long time - probably not since the Canadian Champs a year ago. It was a good reminder of what trees, rocks and vegetation would look like and what a 1:4,000 scale would feel like.

Cristina and I had the same start time so I shamelessly followed her to the start triangle. ;) Then she was off like a shot running through the streets of Arnprior. Woo, Cristina. I jogged along at a more sensible pace, picking off controls in the downtown area - stone walls, trees, etc. It was like a ghost town with the busiest streets closed to traffic for us - very cool.

We ran into a residential area and through a little fenced walkway, then ended up on the front lawn of a school at #6. From here it was about 70 m due north to a rootstock in the forest. I briefly considered going straight there but had a nervous moment and decided to run along the schoolyard until I hit the little trail that led right to the fallen pine tree attached to the rootstock. As I look at the map now, it appears to be a dumb choice - about 60% more running to get to a control that was only a stone's throw away. However, this tied for my best split of the day (3rd) and moved me up from 8th to 4th place so apparently my nervousness was well founded. We had a few more controls in the forest, then I missed seeing #11 as I ran by in moderate visibility vegetation. This was a 1:09 error, according to AP. Yipes, it didn't feel that bad but I guess it really shouldn't take me 2:18 to run 100 m.

Soon after that was the scary part of the race where we ran into Robert Simpson Park, which was filled with spectators. We'd been warned there were 14 controls placed within 120 m of the finish chute, only a few of which would belong to our course. I didn't stop to read my map carefully in the park due to embarrassment about everyone watching, which could have led to embarrassment about everyone watching me get hopelessly lost but fortunately I had two minutes of unconscious competence at the right time. I only wasted time (2 seconds) looking for the start of the finish chute, which was just silly because I'd stood for an hour at the finish line before my start, and it had never occurred to me to imagine what the big tree by the Go control might look like if I approached it from the other side.

7th of 28 today, 83 seconds off the podium and less than 5 minutes behind Pavlina. (In our age category, we only race for 2nd place!) She was 3 minutes behind Ted de St. Croix running the same course so maybe it was a little long for the recommended winning times, not that I mind. It was nice to feel things click today - just in time for the event to be over. :(

Then we watched the very exciting North American elite relay championship. At least it *was* exciting until the Americans pulled ahead on the final leg and won the darned thing. ;)

Great job by Orienteering Ottawa on this entire weekend - a class act and lots of fun.

Sprint - Course 3 - Splits