Training Log Archive: Bash

'Bent finished his video from the Transgrancanaria Marathon. He finished 9th of 80 in his age group and took time out to make a great video while racing.

This was the second half of my race course although I did the final 27K in the dark so I didn't see all this scenery as well as 'Bent did.

Transgrancanaria Marathon from Richard Ehrlich on Vimeo.

My next races are the Zion 50K trail run, Storm the Trent and probably Raid the Rib, all of which are in my comfort zone. But on two consecutive weekends in late May and early June, 'Bent and I have a 40 km canoe race (no kayak paddles allowed) and a 100 km mountain bike race. We've done stuff like that in adventure racing but nothing *exactly* like that so we're trying to figure out how to get ready.

We'd rather be skiing this time of year but there is almost no snow on the ground so we kicked off our mountain bike season today by riding the Caledon Trailway. The Caledon section was mostly frozen hard with occasional skiffs of snow. We rode north of Hwy 9 to Tottenham and found a variety of conditions - ice, soft surface, mud and frozen. Then we turned around and came back into the wind. As expected, my old winter mountain bike shoes worked just as badly as they always have. My toes were icicles after an hour but the rest of me stayed warm.

Dontgetlost Eliminator Adventure Run
Rocky Ridge Ranch

This is the only map that has ever made me cry so I look forward to orienteering on it whenever the opportunity arises. After last weekend's race, I did a lot more walking than running today but that wouldn't have been a problem in this rocky terrain if I had just followed my bearing more accurately from #30 to #29. I see that my GPS track is a little too far east but unfortunately, I felt like I'd erred to the west so I looped around in the wrong direction when I realized I'd missed it, and then it was game over.

I didn't feel like backtracking farther to relocate, which I would do in a serious point-to-point race (and it's the right thing to do), so I just went for a walkabout to the west, hoping to recognize some larger features and get back in contact with the map. It was a beautiful sunny day and it was just nice to be in the woods. It took awhile; I went 27 minutes without punching any controls in a 2-hr race! I saw several friends, some looking confident and others not so much. I resisted the urge to ask for a hint. I eventually found #27 and started navigating for real again, scoring 2/3 of my points in the 2nd half of the race. On the bright side, this map hasn't made me cry since 2006 even though it still has the power to kick my butt sometimes. :)

'Bent had a great day, as did many of our friends. Two women cleared the course, which was impressive since only 3 men did that. Nice to catch up with friends afterward at the Mohawk Chop House, then visit Browner for coffee and doggie hugs from Scout and Contour.

I've had a sore right hip ever since our overseas flight, which was 2.5 days post-race. I thought it would clear up quickly but the twinge has been there for 3 days now. It's improving but I still didn't want to run on it so AdventureDog and I went hiking on snow-covered trails. We cut it short because the wind was gusty and we didn't want to get hit by a falling tree. I'm going to try the Eliminator Adventure Run tomorrow - not the O Cup since that would tempt me to sprint and I am definitely not ready for that!

Some 10 Minutes 2 Zen videos testing the limits of my sore hip. It's not just tightness; something is strained.

I seem to be coming out the other side of a nasty migraine. Ugh.

There should be snow on March 1!

It's the last day of DD11's February challenge so we had to do something before flying Zurich-Montreal-Toronto. Turns out our hotel will send a Sport Bag to your room upon request and it's pretty good!



My body, on the other hand, is not up for much of a workout. I did some stretches, balance, abs and light glutes but my ability to do anything involving strength is very limited, e.g. I had to drop out of a plank quickly because my lower back was too tired.

I'm feeling fine post-race, relatively speaking - no blisters or injuries, just normal DOMS and fatigue. My quads were very sore from 4500+ meters of downhill on rough terrain but today I can sit down without using an arm to assist. That will make things easier on the planes. Home soon! :)