Training Log Archive: Bash

DontGetLost Peak-2-Peak Adventure Run

I was exhausted after last night's Virginia vs. Bruce celebration in Horseshoe Valley, mostly because of coffee that kept me awake for the drive and a few hours afterward! I briefly considered just staying in bed but I'm glad I went to Ancaster to enjoy such a beautiful day in the woods. Nice to see so many AR and O friends too!

Not surprisingly, my fitness and navigational sharpness have been better at other times but I did OK. I made a major error at double black diamond control #60 when I marched up the wrong spur and went much higher than I needed to. I'd turned off the trail early to save climb but the attackpoint wasn't solid enough so I ended up climbing considerably more. Lesson noted. I made a similar error on a much smaller hill while chatting with Harps' neighbour and demonstrating the proper way to screw up a control.

In my sleepy state, I also forgot about the extra dummy flags at the Vertigo control. As in, totally forgot. I noticed that the flag was in the wrong place but that's OK - at least I'd found it. Then when I got there and realized there was no control to punch... "Oh right!"

Otherwise, it was relatively uneventful other than another ankle twist while bushwhacking - just a 3/10 this time so it won't prevent me from running.

DoubleDown, Gally and I enjoyed a post-race "Dirty Southern Lunch" - a double decker sandwich with chicken, BBQ sauce, arugula, maple syrup and waffles instead of bread. Tasty but I could do without the waffle in this case. Coincidentally, on my drive today, I was listening to a This American Life podcast about a team that invents crazy sandwiches and burgers. Apparently, the key is to have a good story that explains the food item; it's not sufficient for the combination of food items to taste good.

I was 1st old lady and top 15% overall with 540 pts. I probably couldn't have made it past 600 pts but my strategy near the end left something to be desired. Next time!!

No time for my planned workout. I've had the interesting pleasure of spending most of the last three days "with" my Dad. Several organizations are jointly nominating him for induction into the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame, which is very touching.

It turned out to be easier for our family to fill out most of the sections of the nomination form as a first draft for the nominators. Some stuff was easy, like "Education". Some checking of details was challenging, given that most of Dad's major contributions to agriculture happened before the Internet.

Amazingly, we stumbled onto information that we hadn't expected to find by Googling - an industry journal article about Dad from 1971, some details on North America-wide conferences he helped to organize in 1972 and 1985, lists of past presidents that included him, and newspaper articles that mentioned his name. There weren't any real surprises but there were things that we'd forgotten. Now that we've passed our work back to the nominators and the sense of urgency is gone, I look forward to doing more Googling to see what else I can find.

As has often happened during this journey of the past ten months, I've thought of so many things that I'd like to discuss with Dad. But since that's impossible, I will at least enjoy finding his stories, nuggets of information and photos.

Busy day so I ran trails in the dark - something I rarely do because I'm a wimp. At one point, I saw animal eyes glowing around a bend in the trail. I kept running toward the eyes. (Yay, I'm so brave!) When I got there, the animal was gone but there was a nasty stench like a carcass or - gulp - a bear, which is not impossible around here. That improved my pace for awhile. (Not so brave after all!)

It's an out-and-back run so I had to pass that same spot on the way back. I picked up a big, sharp stick and yelled as I ran through that area. I was not attacked by a wild animal. The End.

Stopped by the Salomon Store to see their winter selection. :)

Not pleased by how tired I felt after two consecutive days of running. :(

If you've ever thought about Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc but don't feel like committing several years to the qualification and lottery process, there is a great alternative. The Eiger Ultra Trail, which 'Bent and I raced this year, is happening in spectacular Grindelwald, Switzerland in July 2016 and offers four distances from 16 km to 101 km.

Admittedly, there is nothing like being in Chamonix during UTMB week with thousands of other trail runners and their families; I'm glad we got to experience that. But if you'd be content with spectacular Alpine scenery and excellent race organization, the Eiger Ultra Trail fits the bill.

EUT is part of the Ultra-Trail World Tour and is still a relatively new race, just in its 4th year. No qualification is required and until this year, there was no lottery. For 2016, they will accept most entries as they come in, then they'll set up a lottery for the final 100 places for each of the 101 km and 51 km distances.

Registration opens this Friday, Oct. 23 at 10 a.m. Grindelwald time. Last year, 500 entries were sold in the first few hours. With the introduction of the lottery, entries will sell out faster. Check out the video if it sounds like your kind of thing!
https://www.eigerultratrail.ch/en/home.html

I think I read somewhere that when you're building up your running, you should double your distance every day. So today was 20K after yesterday's 10K. I've studied a lot of math so I know if I can keep this up, next weekend's 50K will be a total cakewalk.

This was another ankle-friendly run on gravel roads, gravel shoulders, rail trail, a little pavement and some forest trails in Palgrave West. (Finnerty, Centreville Creek, rail trail, Duffy's Lane, Palgrave West.) It felt harder than 20K usually feels, which is no surprise. I'm ready to take my ankle back onto the trails again. It's still a little stiff but not too bad. There won't be any taper for The Bad Thing (how can I taper down when I'm building up?) but I'll need some rest next week if I'm going to get through it.

Wildlife Watch: One muskrat, one deer.

Must. Start. Strength. Training. Again.

It's been three days since I rolled my ankle, and I've been feeling it so I didn't want to try running right away. I did a gravel road run today, figuring it would be less risky than the trails. It felt OK although my ankle was still a little annoyed at me.

Unless my ankle gets worse, I've decided that The Bad Thing 50K next weekend will be an experiment in what happens when I don't train for an ultra and rely entirely on my base fitness from several months ago. It may well be a spectacular failure but that's what experiments are all about. This was not the original plan, of course, but it is the only option, other than dropping out.

From the "What does a Registrar do?" department, here are excerpts from an email exchange I've been having today.

1) "I'd like to sign up Solo. Should I enter the Male category or the Coed category?"

Luckily, I didn't have to touch that one! I explained that the race is for teams of three and he should enter the appropriate category.

2) "OK. What's the difference between the Coed and the Male category?"

There are no dumb questions - but there are always questions!

A friend's 4-year-old son has been marching around lately, telling his parents that his 1-year-old brother Justin "is just not ready." :)

And then there's this:

O Canada! A beautiful autumn day. :)