Training Log Archive: FunRun

Took the day to hike the Bruce from Eugenia Falls down to Hoggs Falls, and back to Eugenia Falls. Active rest!

Put in a little extra distance getting to Hoggs Falls with trails that crossed or didn't go where expected, but it was well worth it when ending up at a beautiful waterfall to eat lunch at and to swim and play in. Amusingly difficult to see and breathe under the flow of the water, but it felt great and was a lot of fun :-D

After Hoggs falls, walked down the road and then upstream to get to the base of Eugenia Falls, which tumbles into an enormous rock and tree filled ravine so it wasn't easy to get to. It was such fun walking in the river, hopping boulder to boulder, and stopping to swim, taking in the sounds of the water while snoozing in the sun, such that I couldn't care less if I ever got to the falls.

When I left, I just walked along the cliffs until I could scramble up to the Bruce Trail, a little shorter and much faster to get back.

The Peregrines might be delicate, they still are so dependable! ~ exploring rivers and waterfalls, hopping rock to rock (even with the shoes soaking wet), up over logs and down trails, I never was concerned about them slipping or letting me down! Awesome! :-)

[best guess at distance, looped around a few times and it turns out my bruce trail map isn't new enough to have these trails, lol]

C • The falls look beautiful 3

Event: The Muskoka Grind
 

The Muskoka Grind! Off-road triathlon!!! None of these smooth roads, aero-bars, and the like that run of the mill triathletes need ;-). Just rough wavy water, challenging not-really MTB trail single track (I heard it was actually designed by a trail runner not a biker, lol), topped off with a trail run around a lake :-)

It was a lot of fun. Probably one of my better swims, not that this means much :-). Couldn't really get into a flow on the MTB to get the pace up, which was a little disheartening after attacking the Rockstars ride, but loved the trail (probably just shows I need to ride more). The run trail was fairly new, still spongy and the bench cutting still quite raw, which made for a comfortable run... perhaps that was the issue, too comfortable ;-)

A nice hard day, really enjoyed myself and the course, but I certainly wasn't in racing form, wasn't attacking the trails. But there were many there who were, who posted nice solid finish times! Highly recommend this race to anyone who loves trail running and technical single-track MTB riding.

Exceptionally well run event, everyone was super friendly, seemed to run on time, tonnes of volunteers, they were super prepared with extra tents which people hid under when it finally did downpour, and the food was awesome (never seen so much choice and quality in salads, not the run of the mill deli bulk stuff).

Great to see so many AP friends out there (Chief, 1L, Solo, DD), and other race/run friends (such as Kat and Bill), and make some new friends. Great day, a shame everyone had to run off instead of chilling together, but such is the long weekend!

Amusingly, I think I was one of the few who the lightening didn't disturb during the night of camping, but the heat and humidity sure made sleeping impossible :-P

[Note: I'll update this with official times and splits when posted, and perhaps a few photos where I can grab them

Note 2: Salomon Fellcross are super comfortable and secure on hard and soft trail surfaces, really fit my feet well... but are scary, as in I'm going to die, on even slightly wet wood. Off trail shoes for sure!]

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Muskoka Grind
Muskoka Ontario
Sunday August 5, 2012
Full Triathlon
Swim 1 Km, Mountain Bike 16.64 Km, Trail Run 8.64 Km
Entrants Finishers
Total 54 40
Male 40 31
Female 14 9
Unknown 0 0


Full Off Road Tri - 26.28 km
28th Bib 260 Craig Kingston
2:50:06 TM30-39 9/11

open water swim - 1km
34 21:21 2:09 3:13

mountain bike - 16.64 km
31 1:30:57 11.0 1:30

trail run - 8.64km
17 53:07 6:09 Kitchener

C • Sorry we had to bail! 2

A mini-documentary on Shane Perkins, an Australian track cyclist... I think we all know how powerful these guys are and how much Olympic Athlete's consume... but still, 2500W of power!?! Wow. And the photo of the supplements and their purpose (that it's difficult for them to eat enough to sustain training). All so interesting.

The Perfect Athlete from Duncan Elms on Vimeo.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

>> We were actually (and now officially are) 5th at RockstAR with 1780 points! [5th in the 2-man 8 hour or 6th overall] <<

Not enough to catch Bent and PH with their awesome Inner tube and Slingshot skills (and yeah, race experience too :-) ), but definitely more reflective of the solid day of suffering (and fun) at Rockstar!

We were happy with the possibilities either way, but definitely a lesson on checking your splits/score AT the finish line, lol.

[It goes both ways though, as we were only 8th off the bike not 4/5th as we were thinking, lol :-D ]

C • SAWWWWWWEEEEETTT! 4

Pre-orienteering warm-up loops of the field chatting with Nick. New shoes feel pretty good, we'll see how they test on the trails...

Monarch Woods Orienteering with Stars. A bit slow of a start tonight, not adjusting for scale/contours, or spending too long on a misplaced control, took some time to practice different skills like pace counting, tried alternative lines (off trail). Still a nice recovery run and fun to be out with the Stars.

H&P Track: 9-12 (did 7) 400's with 200 recovery, 10 minutes (did 8ish minutes or 7 sprints?) of 200's with cross field recovery. Good speed, no sustaining power... likely not the best eating during post race recovery, cutting into my reserves.

[No watch, but pace was solid and suffering enough for me, just dropped off heavily in the last couple at each distance so ended there. So I'll estimate the time at 1:25ish 400s and 35s 200s as conservative, distance is accurate]

H&P Track: Walking lunges w/ High Knee, stride out.

[might change this to weights/core as it's more equivalent to that !?!]