Training Log Archive: Bash

Back to Georgian Peaks with 'Bent to do repeats on the ski hill. Dee, Mr. and Mrs. Gally and Red joined us for part of the time - what a treat! It felt soooo much easier this time with lower humidity and a light breeze.

'Bent stopped a little early with hot spots on his heel. I did a partial climb in a downpour with black clouds but no lightning. When I returned, 'Bent was looking at a tiny nymph tick embedded in his bicep. (See his log for a photo showing its size.) I'm amazed he noticed that. I can see why nymphs are believed to cause most human Lyme infections. Yikes! I did one more partial climb and decided not to make 'Bent wait in the car any longer. We rewarded ourselves with another yummy pizza lunch at Pie.

Another day, another severe thunderstorm watch! I parked on Coolihan's Sideroad between the two parts of Glen Haffy so I could run out for loops in each direction and return to the car if needed. The rain held off until mid-afternoon, long after I finished, and there were only a few rumbles of thunder.

This was the 3rd day of a 4-day block of training for the UTMR 4-day stage race. Last weekend I did four 10K days, which was easy (phew!) This block is four days of 15K or 2 hrs per day, whichever comes first. One more day to go, then a rest day. Next weekend I'm planning two longer runs on consecutive days. So far nothing hurts.

When I got back, it was great to chat with Storm and 'Bent while we watched our four pooches race one another around the back yard. They all did their best to scare off a very brave (or rabid?) raccoon outside the fence. After watching more, we're thinking she may have babies living somewhere on our property.

Happy Canada Day!

Fun idea for a party tonight! Caron Shepley bought her husband Barrie an Ancestry.ca DNA kit for his birthday awhile ago. He knows he is mostly British but he has slightly darker skin and has been mistaken for a Mexican a few times, so they knew there was something more.

The test results arrived but only Caron and her twin sister Jill knew how it had turned out; they didn't tell Barrie. We were invited to a party where each corner of the room had a table with food and drinks from one of the "finalists": Mexico, Spain, Caribbean and North American Indian.

At the appointed hour, Caron took Barrie into the back room to blindfold him and dress him in an appropriate costume to suit his heritage. Guests were asked to stand by the food and drink table corresponding to our guess. We were also asked to guess a percentage for this ethnicity.

The answer was... Spanish! 'Bent and I guessed that correctly and 'Bent won the grand prize of two bottles of wine by coming within 1% of the correct percentage. The look on Barrie's face when the blindfold came off and he realized he was dressed as a matador was priceless.

Hot, humid, slow, hilly run on the Bruce Trail at Glen Haffy with a couple of hill repeats on Glen Haffy Rd. for a break. I didn't see a soul in the park; everyone else is smarter than this.

In case this helps anyone... I'd rather travel with an iPad instead of a laptop so I upgraded to an Ambit3 with Bluetooth, which means I can upload GPS tracks to Movescount without needing a download cable and laptop, and there is no risk of my watch filling up while I'm away.

I knew it was a "nice to have" feature but I wondered if I could get my GPS tracks into Attackpoint too. Garmin users can upload to AP directly from Garmin Connect but there is no interface for Movescount. Movescount can export a GPX file to be imported into AP but an iPad has no file structure so it can't do anything with that.

Ken had a great suggestion that worked! Movescount will export a GPX file into the Dropbox app, then I can import it into AP from Dropbox. I suspect this may come in handy with some other situations I'll encounter when I leave my laptop at home.

Easy run around our big, hilly country block. Thunderstorms were in the forecast so I did my run in two loops so I could head home quickly if it got nasty. The sky was gloomy and the wind became gusty but it looks like we dodged the bullet this time.

In the past, I've sometimes done this route as a time trial. I didn't do that today but even if I *had* pushed, it's obvious that I can't equal the times I ran a few years ago. Oh well, getting older is better than the alternative.

Part 2 of my run. The clouds and wind had become more ominous so I stayed within 2 km of home on the Palgrave West trails. When I got back, the sun came out - of course!

Short ride around Palgrave East. Some time over the past month, I stopped being conscious of the differences between my new 29er and my old 26er. Now this is just what it feels like to ride a bike. I sat on my 26er recently and felt like I would fly over the handlebars because it seemed so tiny.

I wanted to try the short, steep, eroded, rooty uphill that gave me trouble last month and took me nine times to clear with the new bike. That was disappointing but I think it has eroded a lot since I last rode it with the 26er. When I got there today, (a) the trail was lined with lush poison ivy on both sides, and (b) the trail builders have built a new section of trail to bypass the eroded section. That's a rare occurrence in Palgrave Forest so I guess it wasn't just me.

Between poison ivy and horse poop in Palgrave East, I think we've reached that part of the summer when it's worth riding the extra few kms down to Albion Hills.

(Bike computer distance)

Short SUP paddle before our yoga class. There was a big swim race at the quarry tonight so we paddled around the island to stay out of their way.

First SUP yoga class of the summer! Caron went easy on us since there were some newbies. My neighbour Kathy came along for her first class and loved it. We were given tickets to the post-swim BBQ by the beach so we enjoyed a burger and cookie before heading home.

There was a vendor selling cover-ups that allow you to change your clothes standing out in public while remaining decent. I change clothes in my vehicle about a thousand times more often than a normal human so this thing, called a GoFor Cover, seemed like a good investment.
https://goforcover.com/

Tired! I wonder if 'Bent mixed too much decaf into our coffee this morning.

Storm after storm rolled past this afternoon with ominous clouds, heavy rain, thunder and chick pea-sized hail. It got sunny in between but BazingaDog was having none of it. After the hail, he went on strike and refused to go outside. I dug up Ginger Runner's post-Barkley interview with Gary Robbins and hit the treadmill, which naturally caused the weather to become quite nice.