Training Log Archive: escondido

Postholing in Gatineau Park off trail. Took a full pack with lots of weight. Close to 10cm of new snow overnight. This was a really tough hike. Legs were sinking in to knees, snow was wet and heavy. Uphills were almost impossible - flats felt uphill.

Nice weather road run with squirt around ottawa. Felt surprisingly good. Two short stops duering the run to refuel.

Still a bit tired and weak from this past weekend.

1 minute intervals switching between 12kph and 10kph all at 2%. While it's still unseasonably cold here at -7, I guess I am glad I'm not in PEI.

Event: Odyssey One Day Xtreme
 

This was an interesting race to say the least, for me. I was lucky enough to have teammates that put up with me through some bad faults. Really, DD_on11 and Simpy summed it up very well, but they were kind enough not to point out all my errors.

The first score-o 10km section was a cluster-fuck. I had the team swimming within the first 10 minutes at a point where a bridge should have been. On the first big hill, I was not prepared for the 20 foot contour intervals and I did not take the team down the re-entrant far enough. Third error was looking for a CP up a hill a little bit, whereas it was down at the bottom of the valley beside the river - not sure if that was an incorrectly numbered UTM or bad plotting on my part. Finally, I forgot to plot one optional CP and did not see the error until we were nearing the end.

Well, with my confidence shot, we headed out on the paddle. The CPs were all located in the hills embanking Philpott Lake. We would paddle to a spot, beach the canoes, and do an out an back for the CP. There were 9 of these stops, over which we collected 13 CPs. Total paddling was about 22km with 10km of trekking disperssed throughout. About two nav errors here where I took the team about 200 metres down wrong ridges. DD_on11 and Julie did great work in their canoe keeping up with Simpy and I. With Simpy in the back of our canoe, I had many chances to review the map, and so I was grateful for that.

Next section was biking, mixed in with little trekking sections. One bad nav problem here where we had to ditch a CP (but we came back to it at the end of the race) likely costing us an hour. Total biking distance was 37km with 4.5 km of trekking thrown inbetween to get to CPs burried away from trails.

1/3rd way through the biking section was a bike drop to get 8 pure trekking CPs. These all went fairly well except for 1 re-entrant CP that was burried amongst the most thorny, overgrown rhododendron. Total trekking distance of 19.5 km.

We finished 3rd in our category (4 person coed) and 5th overall (including 2 and 3 person teams) - so this was an excellent result and unexpected.

Overall I reallty enjoyed this race. Teammates were awesome - Simpy was very kind to give me time on the map and he was positive throughout the race. Julie was very strong. And of course DD_on11 was muleing along, pushing the team, taking extra weight, and providing encouragement.

The hills/mountains were huge compared to Ontario and so this was excellent training for UNE (both physically and navigationally). Trekking poles will be used, and a lot more attention to contours will be made.

Weather was amazing at 20 degrees during Saturday and 7 degrees overnight. What a pleasure compared to Ottawa right now. Glad we all piled into one car to make the drive.

Total Distances:
Trek = 44 km
Paddle = 22 km
Bike = 3 7km

C • Great Job! 4

Easy run at lunch.

Easy spin at the gym

Shadowed Squirt during her road training run. We did three 5km loops. It was friggin cold today. The good news is that I am now very good at running with something covering my mouth, today it was a balaclava.

2 loops of the wolf trail in Gatineau Park. Temps were very nice, just below freezing. The trails were still hard packed snow so very easy to do with shoes. Snow base is definitely decreasing. Lots of walkers out today.

C • Sweet! 3

At the gym over lunch. Next week I should do this with my life jacket on.

10 minute w/u
60 minutes of intervals
5 minute c/d

It was plus 4 degrees in Ottawa, so just had to take advantage get a little ride in. Everything looks good, but as DD_on11 pointed out: just didn't feel the increased winter training on this ride.

Morning run from our motel; just a warm-up for this afternoon's mountain trek up Mont Tremblant.

Hike up Mount Tremblant with Squirt in the afternoon. Great sunshine and good workout of the calves.

C • 865m? That'll do! 7

C • What's this about?! 11

Wolf trail in Gatineau Park.

10 min w/u and c/d.
50 minutes of ladder intervals: 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 mins with equal rest.
10 mins of 1 minute intervals at standing position.

Swimming while watching the sun rise was very. Nice this morning. Next week the mornings will be in darkness again.

*New: After reading the latest UNE race director report I think I need to be swimming uphill from now on.

C • Pfft..only 7 summits.. 8

5 min w/u @ 2% grade and 10 mins/km pace.
At 5min mark increased grade to 6%.
Every 3 mins increased grade by 1%.
Ended at 13% grade.
Hill was done at 7 mins/km pace.

Brick day

Did an evening workout after a long day at Mont Tremblant skiing with Squirt. It was so frigid on the slopes today, but some great powder from yesterdays snowfall.

After a mid afternoon snooze, dragged my butt out the door and did some snowshoeing hills in Gatineau Park. Lots and lots of snow up there. Had a massage this morning, so my muscles were still very sore and not ready for heavy training.