Training Log Archive: Bash

My road bike, Princess, will be moving to a new home. Coach Barrie Shepley of the C3 triathlon club says that every year they have juniors who need a good bike so they'd be happy to have one in reserve.

Since yesterday's ride was cut short, I went back for more riding in Palgrave East. I figured the roots and logs would be drier today, which made it more pleasant. Beautiful late October riding with a sense of adventure because I couldn't always see the trail and never saw any of the obstacles under the leaves. Lots of hikers and bikers were out enjoying this beautiful autumn day. I finished with 'Bent's Covid Crusher trail at the back of our property. I make a wrong turn every time I ride it, which drives him crazy because he swears it's really well-marked, haha.









Our front yard is still colourful.

Storm and Browner came over and all our dogs had a great time bounding around the yard together. Then we put them indoors to nap while the humans rode around Palgrave Forest.

Unbelievably, we stumbled onto a new 2.6 km trail in Palgrave East - a place we thought we knew inside out. It was strange. Some sections looked like they'd been built earlier today while others seemed more established. The trail went right through a ruin, which I couldn't imagine being approved by the TRCA. There were some very steep drop-offs with tight turns at the bottom. It didn't ride like a trail built to IMBA standards, which is what the usual Palgrave trail builders use. So we figured it must have been built illegally, and 'Bent confirmed it with a knowledgeable friend afterward. That's a lot of work for someone to do on a trail that will undoubtedly be closed by conservation area staff eventually. Parts of it were fun but if I use it again, I think I'll go on foot rather than bike.

Unfortunately, one of the steep downhills had a large, wet log half-buried diagonally across the trail. Browner's bike slid out and she flew over her handlebars to a hard landing. After checking her for immediate injuries (we all put on masks), we did some hike-a-bike toward home. Eventually she felt OK to ride. Hope she won't feel it too much tomorrow.

We lit a back yard fire and had snacks while the dogs played. Scout and Contour were smart enough to jump onto the patio furniture with us so they could sleep by the fire. We were grateful that they kept us warm. I've been thinking that blankets and old sleeping bags could really help with outdoor socializing. It wasn't that cold today but we tried the blankets and they helped, so now they're on our Official List of Pandemic Protocols.

If you're looking for high quality running/orienteering snowshoes, 33-Off has them in stock now at a good price (for what they are). https://33-off.com/search?q=ATLAS&goal=0_2781f...

Is anyone interested in an older, seldom-used road bike? I hear bikes are hard to find these days. I have a medium-size 2010 Opus Allegro full carbon road bike that I only use on the trainer now - and not very often because I'm way more comfortable on a mountain bike. This winter I'm going to set up my old MTB on the trainer.

If you've been on AP for a while, you may remember "Princess", the road bike I had to buy when I unexpectedly won a free entry to the 2011 Coast to Coast race in New Zealand. We had a few good adventures together but I just don't enjoy road riding so it's been years since the bike has been outdoors. There is a trainer tire and a road tire.

Princess is a little too big for me and gave me a sore back even after a professional bike fitting - probably best for a rider 5'8" or taller. I don't know where the cut-off is to switch from Medium to Large.

I thought about keeping it as an "around the town" bike but Princess looks too nice for that - the kind of bike that might get stolen. I assume it may be difficult to get replacement parts for a bike of this age but it's in pretty good shape.

I also have a Tacx Flow trainer bought in 2012. It's not a smart trainer that connects to an app. It just shows you watts, cadence, speed - that sort of thing.

This is all free to a good home if someone wants to pick up one or both, or I could bring it along if we'll both be in the same area.

Here's a photo from Princess' early days.

So... with all the good advice I've been getting on rowing pace, I obviously had to include some rowing in my workout. I pushed as hard as I possibly could and managed to see a 2:08 per 500 m pace pop up on the display very briefly. But my first 500 m took 2:28 so I'm nowhere near the "fast high school girl" Melissa described.

I continued another 500 m - or, as we say in running, I went 1 km. It took 5:05 so it wasn't exactly a negative split. Hoo boy, I was working hard! I didn't warm up, which would have been a really good idea.

Treadmill run since it doesn't hurt my foot too much.

Easy cooldown on the rowing erg.

1 km of rowing as a warm-up. I'd set a goal of 8 mins/km but it turns out rowing is faster than I thought. My new goal is 5 mins/km.

Followed by foothab, which I haven't done for a while.

Sadly, it looks like World's Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge will not have a Season 2. Nearly everyone I know in the sport of adventure racing had applied (not me) so there will be a lot of disappointment. I was looking forward to watching it.
https://www.deccanherald.com/international/world-n...

If anyone else out there has an Ambit, I assume you've been getting pop-up warnings from Movescount telling you to switch to the Suunto app by the end of October. I dedicated a few hours to doing this, testing it, phoning Suunto Support and backing out my changes. Details here. The short story: Don't do it.
https://www.attackpoint.org/discussionthread.jsp/m...

Sadly, that was today's workout.