Training Log Archive: Bash

Event: Raid The Hammer
 

I wanted to do Raid The Hammer even though I've been running out of energy quickly since running the Javelina 100 in the heat two weeks ago. Dee and Audrey have been injured and sick respectively so we formed a team with the plan to just have fun. At least, that's what I thought! As always, these strong ladies are still in great shape even when they're not 100% so it was a very tough day for me physically. It was still lots of fun to explore the woods together on a beautiful day with terrific maps.

Dee and Aud are both excellent teammates so I got lots of towing and pushing in places where the terrain allowed. It was *way* more than my body was ready for. There were a few big climbs when I felt so weak that I couldn't pull myself up and thought I might topple over backwards off the cliff. There was plenty of ankle busting terrain so I was protective of the ankle I've twisted twice in the past four weeks; it held up. My brain got fuzzy with the physical effort but it was an OK nav race for me - neither great nor terrible.

It was interesting to see areas where I'd never been before. The finish line was in Stoney Creek and somehow I'd never been on the Bruce Trail on that side of Hamilton. There are some pretty views and gorgeous homes.

There were several different challenges that helped us reach the promised 50 controls for the club's 50th anniversary. We had two Matrix sections, a long-ish Walk the Line and three sections where we had to watch for flagging tape at "potential control" locations, then report to volunteers which controls we had seen. Sometimes I wished the WTL or potential controls had been placed in trickier places since we noticed teams accidentally missing some of those sections and saving time but that's a minor niggle. It was a fun course, tremendously hard work and a fantastic day for running in the woods!

The final map was mostly an aerial photo that I didn't wrap my head around immediately, which led to our biggest bobble of the day enroute to the dog park. We ran hard to the finish beside the school track - except it wasn't there. We spent several minutes in that area trying to find it tucked behind a wall or hill before we ran around the school and 'Bent directed us to the place it had been moved to - 4 minutes lost, according to GPS.

Fun day, completely zonked! One bruised kneecap and one big scrape but otherwise I seem to have survived. Thank you to all the DontGetLost staff and volunteers who work so hard on these events. It was a great day!

Tonight was the annual banquet for the C3 triathlon club, to which we belong since it's local and we enjoy overlapping activities and interests. I was very surprised and honoured to receive the C3 Female Runner of the Year award. They obviously decided to reward distance over speed this year! Although I feel quite undeserving, given that most club members could kick my butt in a 10K road run, I'm impressed at the way they have embraced 'Bent and me and our crazy adventure sports over the past decade.

The keynote speakers were the Mallory family, whom many of us know from adventure racing. They have a book now, "The Family that Conquered Everest".

Now to enjoy some down time from quality training until Dec. 1! (Oh, except for Raid The Hammer tomorrow.)

AdventureDog and I went for a run around Palgrave West at sunset. It was my first run since Javelina two weeks ago. Although I felt OK racing in the crazy desert heat, I've been tiring quickly since I got back. That's probably not too unusual after running 100K, and November is a good time to take a break anyway. I cranked my ankle pretty hard at the 5K mark of the race then kept going for 95 more kms so that's not good either. My next ultra is late February and I'm not planning to get back to regular running until Dec. 1.

All that aside, I needed to test my legs and orienteering shoes before Raiding The Hammer with Dee and Audrey on Sunday. We are all protesting that we aren't in racing form, and I'm very serious about that so I hope I won't hold them back too much. It sounds like a fun race course with great weather in the forecast!

Substitute instructor Adele decided to crank things up a notch.

Tough class! Hope I don't still have sore muscles for Raid The Hammer but I might because we did some really different stuff.

Ugh, couldn't sleep after watching Trump's acceptance speech.

Dee, Mrs. Gally and I had a fun, chatty ride around the leaf-covered trails of Albion Hills. Spectacular day, great company! My legs are still tired from Javelina but I didn't feel as exhausted as I did on Sunday so things are moving in the right direction.

Class

Class with Caron